FAA lifts four-hour nationwide ground stop after communications failure
The order stranded travelers and disrupted thousands of flights; officials said there was no indication so far that the halt was an attack and pointed to aging equipment and upgrade work.
On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a four-hour halt to departing flights across the United States after a communications failure disrupted air traffic control centers, the Los Angeles Times reported. The agency cited safety and extraordinary circumstances in an advisory that told departing aircraft to remain grounded until further notice. Inbound international flights were to be handled on a case-by-case basis. The order was lifted around 5:30 p.m., but The Times reported that a cascade effect was expected to disrupt air travel for days. [1]
At the White House, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said switches and routers on the FAA's analog system became overloaded with data, producing inconsistencies in communications with airlines. Officials decided to shut the system down, he said. Duffy criticized the agency's aging infrastructure and said President Trump is pushing for the funding needed to update it. He contrasted the FAA's network with the fiber and high-speed systems he said reporters use. [1]
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters the halt did not constitute a national-security threat. He said there was no indication or reason to believe it was a threat to the United States, and later said there was no indication yet that it was a nefarious attack. [1]
FlightAware counted more than 9,500 delays nationwide and about 5,300 cancellations by Friday evening. At Los Angeles International Airport, more than 600 flights were delayed and more than 280 had been canceled. Those figures were reported Friday evening; the source did not give a total number of affected passengers. [1]
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Carriers worked to notify customers, including many who had reached airports expecting to board. American Airlines said airborne flights could continue and warned of schedule disruption for the rest of the day depending on how long the order lasted. It promised an all-hands effort once the order ended. United said new domestic departures would wait, international departures were being handled individually, airborne flights would continue, diversions were occurring because hubs held too many grounded planes, and cancellations were being made because of congestion. Delta posted updates online. [1]
At LAX, Zack Richeimer, 29, was stuck in Terminal 6. He first saw no cancellations on airport screens and thought he only needed to wait, then friends told him he was stranded, according to The Times. An Alaska Airlines representative booked him for Saturday, but rental car companies did not answer his calls. He planned to try a rental facility near the airport, with a friend's couch as backup. [1]
Maria Moye, 50, of Irvine, sat in LAX's Delta terminal waiting for a rideshare home. Her work trip to New York's Kennedy airport was scheduled for 3:40 p.m., and she had arrived two hours early when it was affected, The Times reported. Delta's app and website had technical problems when she tried to cancel, and she said she felt better about not boarding, just in case. [1]
Dylan Schroeder, 37, was aboard a Charlotte-to-Orlando flight that had loaded around 3:45 p.m. Eastern time when the pilot told passengers that air traffic control was experiencing system problems. The pilot kept them aboard for an update and then announced after just over an hour that they would deplane, according to The Times. Schroeder, a Baton Rouge resident, described the mood as decent given the circumstances; several passengers who appeared headed to Disney World were disappointed. [1]
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The Times also published images of travelers waiting at LaGuardia Airport in New York and Miami International Airport after the FAA announcement. The source did not say how many people were stranded overnight or how rebooking went after the order was lifted. [1]
Friday became the second occasion since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on which the agency imposed a full nationwide halt, The Times reported. The most recent prior one, in 2023, lasted about 90 minutes after a pilot-notification system failed. Friday's order lasted four hours. [1]
Audio from San Diego International Airport showed how the order reached pilots. A controller told pilots on the runway about the halt; one pilot responded in disbelief and asked whether it was a joke, according to The Times. The controller confirmed it was not and cited an equipment problem. Others on the frequency wondered whether Thursday's Microsoft Outlook outage was connected. Mullin said he did not believe the telecommunications issue was tied to that earlier outage. [1]
The failure came as a technology company and defense contractor works across FAA facilities to replace decades-old copper wire connections with modern high-speed networks, The Times reported. Federal sources speaking anonymously told The Times that the outage responsible for the ground stop was on a system undergoing upgrades. Mullin said the FAA appeared to be adding patches, equipment and new technology, and that the new technology was overwhelming the older system. He said the patchwork approach does not work and called for one complete system built by a single provider. The source does not name the contractor or say whether the affected system was part of that work. [1]
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Days earlier, the FAA had said it would deploy a cloud-based artificial-intelligence platform nationwide to help reduce delays. The tool, Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories, or SMART, was described as an enhancement to existing FAA air traffic management systems, offering a shared, data-driven view of the national airspace. Mullin said officials were looking at any links between the new system and the stoppage. Air Space Intelligence, which created SMART, said on social media Friday afternoon that the halt was not based on or a result of SMART, any ASI product, or its integration with the FAA and air traffic control. [1]
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) called the FAA telecommunications outage completely unacceptable and said the agency needs systems without a single point of failure. He urged the FAA and the Trump administration to prevent a repeat, called for congressional hearings on the cause and improvements, and said the episode was damaging trust in an air system he described as vital to the national economy. [1]
Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, the ranking Democrat on the Aviation, Space and Innovation Subcommittee, said she would demand answers from the FAA. [1]
The public accounts do not provide a detailed technical sequence. Duffy described analog switches and routers overloaded with data; the anonymous federal sources told The Times the affected system was being upgraded; Mullin said new technology was overwhelming the older system. The source does not establish whether these descriptions refer to one chain of events or separate factors, nor does it explain how upgrade work and legacy capacity problems interacted. That leaves the precise cause unresolved. The source also does not say how long the upgrade work had been underway or what testing preceded it. It does not identify the specific switches, routers or other equipment involved, nor does it give a timeline of when the communications inconsistencies began before the FAA shut the system down. It also does not provide a breakdown of delays and cancellations by airline or airport beyond the nationwide and LAX totals. [1]
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Questions also remain about the SMART tool and the earlier Microsoft outage. Mullin said officials were looking at possible links between the new system and the halt, while Air Space Intelligence denied that its product or integration caused it. Mullin also said he saw no link between the telecommunications failure and Thursday's Microsoft disruption. Officials said there was no indication of an attack, but the source does not show how they will weigh the company's denial, the official consideration of possible links and the anonymous account of upgrade work. [1]
Duffy cautioned that resuming traffic would take time, and he said he hoped for much better movement the next day. American said its schedule could be disrupted for the rest of the day, with the extent depending on how long the FAA order remained. United said cancellations were due to congestion and diversions because its hubs had too many grounded planes. The Times reported that the stop was lifted around 5:30 p.m. but that a cascade effect was expected to disrupt air travel for days. The source does not provide a full recovery timeline. [1]
The source leaves several next steps open. One question is whether Congress follows up on Lieu's call for hearings and Duckworth's demand for answers. Another is whether FAA officials elaborate beyond the accounts given by Duffy and Mullin, including the relationship between upgrade work and the legacy system. A third is whether Air Space Intelligence's denial and Mullin's statement that officials were looking at possible links lead to further public explanation. Lieu tied the outage to public trust and the economy; the source does not provide independent measures of either effect. Those are questions raised by the published accounts, not forecasts. [1]
For travelers, the source points to airline notices and statements as the available guidance. American, United and Delta used their websites or statements to describe their responses. American discussed airborne flights, expected disruption and an all-hands effort; United described domestic and international departures, diversions and cancellations; Delta posted updates. The Times reported that airlines were working to notify passengers and that the halt left travelers at airports seeking information. Duffy's hope for better movement the next day, alongside his caution about how quickly traffic could resume, frames the immediate uncertainty without resolving it. [1]
Sources
Prepared with AI assistance from the cited sources.
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