The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop Friday afternoon due to communications problems at regional air traffic control centers.
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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered all flights grounded nationwide on Friday afternoon for what officials described as the second time since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, citing “extraordinary circumstances” caused by communications problems at regional air traffic control centers.
In a notice, the FAA said the restrictions were imposed “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” while Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the agency was investigating a communications issue affecting the 22 regional air traffic control centers that direct planes en route between airports across the country.
U.S. homeland security officials said there was no indication the disruption was caused by a malicious act. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told reporters at the White House that there was “no indication yet that this was a nefarious attack against us,” adding that it was “just a telecommunications outage as of right now.” He also said there was no reason to be concerned about loved ones if they were flying.
The ground stop led to major travel disruptions, with at least 600 flights diverted so far, according to Cirium. As of 5:50 p.m. Eastern, 496 flights were diverted back to their departure airports and 104 were sent to different airports.
Among airports where many diversions ended up included Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Denver International Airport, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Cancellations and further diversions were possible because, according to the same report, about 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers were scheduled to take off from U.S. airports after 4 p.m. Eastern.
At Chicago O’Hare, travellers learned of the ground stop through airport screens showing delays across the board and began deciding whether to remain in the city or make alternative plans.
While Friday’s restrictions did not include an immediate instruction for aircraft to land, aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said the situation resembled a regional communications outage in September that snarled flights across the Northeast, though this time it occurred on a nationwide scale. He said the need to stop planes on the ground could arise from failures or degradation in the communications capability.
The FAA had no timeline for restarting flights. Mullin said investigators would look at whether there was any link to the FAA’s rollout of a new artificial intelligence system intended to help identify problems and reroute planes, which operates from one location near Washington, D.C., and sends recommendations to air traffic control centers.
The U.S. government has been working to overhaul older air-traffic-control technology, including replacing miles of copper wires with fiber optic lines and gradually updating radio systems at airports. Duffy said another $30 billion would be needed to complete the work, and the White House has begun lobbying Congress to approve additional funding.
Despite the nationwide ground stop, SpaceX launched its Starship rocket from Texas on Friday afternoon on its latest test flight.
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