The FAA has ordered an unprecedented nationwide ground stop, halting departures at all US airports ‘due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety’
The Federal Aviation Administration has halted all flights across the US, saying the decision was taken “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety”.
In an alert, it said: “DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND FOR REASONS OF SAFETY. ATTENTION ALL AIRCRAFT OPERATORS, BY ORDER OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION COMMAND CENTER ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED. ALL DEPARTING TRAFFIC SHOULD REMAIN GROUND STOPPED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. INBOUND INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS WILL BE MANAGED ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS.”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the US government body that regulates civil aviation, essentially serving as the American equivalent of the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
The FAA’s extraordinary decision to stop flights nationwide follows reports of major communication problems earlier in the evening. The agency said it was experiencing air traffic control communications issues, and shortly before the US-wide order it paused traffic in Chicago for the same reason.
CBS News also said Chicago’s Midway International Airport was placed under a ground stop as well. Nationwide ground stops are rare in the US and are typically reserved for emergency situations, Sky News reported.
One of the most notable examples was after the 9/11 attacks, when the FAA ordered all flights to halt. In this case, the stoppage appears to be linked to a technical problem, potentially involving communications.
The most recent similar ground stop was in January 2023, after a pilot notification system suffered an outage. The US transport secretary has confirmed the nationwide ground stop was due to a communication issue affecting all of the country’s air traffic control centres.
In an X post, Sean Duffy said all the centres were affected by the issue, and technicians were investigating. The US Department of Transportation and the White House only today urged Congress to approve billions more to overhaul ageing air traffic control communications, Sky News reported.
They asked both chambers to sign off an additional $30.1 billion (£23.8 billion) for airport and system upgrades, following the $12.5 billion (£9.9 billion) package passed in July last year. White House budget chief Russell Vought and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said: “This investment is critical to complete the modernisation of our national airspace – delivering a resilient telecommunications backbone for air traffic controllers, modern hardware and software, state-of-the-art control towers, and world-class airport infrastructure.”
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