FAA has lifted its third-ever nationwide ground stop

The Federal Administration lifted its third-ever nationwide ground stop after several hours Friday evening. Domestic flights were cleared to begin taking off at 8:35 pm EST. FAA Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cautioned that, barring massive system updates, there will be “more of these” ahead.

“Today’s nationwide ground stop happened because our air traffic control system is operating on DECADES-OLD analog equipment that simply cannot compete with the demands of the 21st century,” Duffy posted on X.

Over a million travelers have been affected by the delays, with some airlines cancelling flights for the remainder of Friday. “Due to the ongoing ground stop, Air Canada has cancelled all flights to and from the United States for the remainder of the evening,” the airline said.

The stoppage began at 3:36 pm EST Friday afternoon, days after expanding use of an AI tool, when the Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop, halting departures from all US airports. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced the ground stop on X, citing a “communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.” Duffy promised updates as more information is known and said FAA staff were troubleshooting the problem.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that the ground stop was not prompted by a security threat. “This is a telecommunications outage out of the FAA. Out of an abundance of caution, we have grounded all of the flights,” Mullin said. “There’s no indication as of yet that this is a nefarious attack against us.”

Mullin said the FAA would handle incoming international flights on a case-by-case basis.

This is only the third nationwide ground stop issued by the FAA. The first, and most memorable, came during the attacks of September 11, 2001, when the FAA stopped all civilian departures nationwide and subsequently ordered all airborne aircraft to land. Commercial flights did not take off again until September 13. Flights were also grounded for less than two hours the morning of January 11, 2023, after its Notice to Air Missions system suffered an outage.

Unfortunately for travelers, based on what is known so far, this is likely to be a lengthy ground stop. Airlines have already canceled flights scheduled to leave later Friday, and American Airlines warned that disruptions are expected for the rest of the day. “This is going to take some time,” Mullin said. “Flights are accounted for, and there should be no fear to the public at all.”

This story was updated at 10:03 pm EST to report the ground stop was lifted.