A major communication failure across the United States air traffic control system forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue a rare nationwide ground stop on Friday, halting all departing flights across the country and disrupting travel for thousands of passengers.
The FAA ordered the ground stop “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” according to an agency advisory, after reporting serious issues with air traffic control communications affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.
The directive, which took effect at 3:54 p.m. Eastern Time, instructed all departing aircraft to remain on the ground until further notice, though flights already in the air were permitted to land.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the cause in a statement posted on social media, saying the FAA “issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.” He added that “FAA technicians are investigating the issue” and promised immediate updates as information became available.
Preliminary reports indicated the disruption was not a cyberattack, according to two law enforcement officials cited by CNN. Flight tracking company Flightradar24 reported that the FAA issued the order following an equipment outage, with the agency’s advisory also citing frequency issues across the National Airspace System.
The scale of the disruption was immense. According to aviation tracker FlightAware, nearly 7,000 flights across the United States were delayed or canceled as a result of the ground stop.
At the time the order was issued, Flightradar24 data showed approximately 3,100 aircraft already airborne and bound for U.S. airports, while no additional aircraft were permitted to take off.
International flights heading to the United States were being managed on a “case by case basis,” the FAA said, while domestic departures remained frozen. The advisory listed an effective period extending to 11:30 p.m. ET, but the directive made clear that departing aircraft should remain grounded “until further notice,” with no guarantee that flights would resume by the stated time.
The incident marked only the second nationwide ground stop of all U.S. departures since the September 11, 2001, attacks. The only prior instance occurred in January 2023, when the FAA paused all domestic departures for less than two hours after a pilot notification system malfunctioned.
The grounding also renewed attention to the agency’s aging infrastructure. Congress approved $12.5 billion last year to overhaul the FAA’s aging communications system, and on the same day as the ground stop, the agency and the White House requested an additional **$30.1 billion from Congress to address other outstanding issues.
The FAA had not announced when normal flight operations would resume as of Friday evening. Passengers scheduled to travel were advised to check with their airlines for the latest updates before heading to airports.
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