Flights halted at US airports amid air traffic control communications problems

The FAA notice said the ground stop was being imposed “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety”.

The nation’s top homeland security official attributed the problem to a telecommunications outage and said there was no indication yet of a nefarious act.

But the consequences were profound, disrupting potentially thousands of planned flights through at least late Friday night and upending travel plans for passengers.

“It’s frustrating. This certainly sounds like it’s going to be more than the usual run of the mill delay. I look forward to finding out why,” said Jeff Dubner, a Washington DC lawyer, whose Alaska Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Washington DC was already half an hour late and taxiing to the runway when the plane came to a halt.

The nationwide ground stop was the first since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned, and the second since the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The FAA is investigating a communication issue affecting the 22 regional air traffic control centres that direct planes en route between airports nationwide, said transportation secretary Sean Duffy.

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. It’s just a telecommunications outage”.

“Everybody’s safe. There’s no reason to be concerned about your loved ones if they’re flying,” Mr Mullin said.

Nearly 481 flights in the US had been cancelled or not taken off within 180 minutes of their scheduled departure time, as of 4.40pm Eastern time on Friday, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. That represents about 1.8% of the 26,284 flights that were scheduled to depart on Friday from the US.

Most of the flights affected so far were due to take off from airports in New York, San Francisco and Boston. With some 11,000 flights scheduled to take off from US airports after 4pm Eastern time, more cancellations were expected, the company said.

At Chicago O’Hare Airport on Friday afternoon, travellers passing through security learned about the ground stop when they gazed up at screens that showed flight delays across the board.

Some called friends or family members, debating whether to stay the night in Chicago or find another way to their destinations.

Amber McQuilkin, 27, sat on a bench, disappointed that she might miss a trip with friends to New York for the League of Legends world finals. Her friends, she said, had already arrived there.

“There’s not really any information being passed to me,” said the Seattle software engineer, who took a week of holiday for the trip. “I contemplated just abandoning the flight and driving, but then the more I thought about it, the more I’m like, that would be miserable.”

Despite the nationwide FAA ground stop, SpaceX launched its Starship rocket from Texas on Friday afternoon on its latest test flight.

There is no timeline for restarting flights.

Mr Mullin said investigators will look at whether there is any link to the FAA’s nationwide rollout of a new artificial intelligence system to help identify problems and reroute planes.

But that system operates out of one location near Washington DC and just sends recommendations to the air traffic control centres.

The government has been working to overhaul the outdated technology that air traffic controllers rely on since Congress approved 12.5 billion dollars for the project last year.

Miles of old copper wires have been replaced with fibre optic lines and old radio systems are gradually being replaced at airports across the country.

But much work remains. Mr Duffy has said that another 30 billion dollars will be needed to complete the work, and the White House has begun lobbying Congress to approve it.

The problem appeared similar to a regional air traffic control communication outage in September that snarled hundreds of flights across the north-east, aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said, except this time on a nationwide scale.

It may be linked to the outdated technology used by air traffic controllers.

“If you don’t have that ability, whether it’s because the old wires that they have are just run down or for whatever reason, you’ve got to stop airplanes on the ground,” said Mr Arroyo, who is a former United Airlines pilot. “And not put them in the air where you’re going to risk not being able to communicate with them.”

Friday’s ground stop was different than the one after September 11 because planes were not being told to land immediately and pilots probably were able to communicate with ground controllers at airports, Mr Arroyo said.