US flights face nationwide ground stop after FAA communications outage
A frequency outage affecting 22 air route traffic control centres has disrupted over 7,000 flights across the United States.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a nationwide ground stop on Friday, November 13, after communications problems affected 22 air route traffic control centres. According to reports from Urban Acres and Hindustan Times, the outage has affected over 7,000 flights. The directive took effect at 3:54pm ET and was scheduled to remain in force until 11:30pm ET.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the communications issue impacted all 22 regional air traffic control centres and confirmed that FAA technicians were investigating the problem. The FAA described the measure as being introduced due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety. A release cited a rolling frequency outage as the cause, which occurs when radio communication infrastructure fails to function properly.
United Airlines stated that while flights already in the air would continue, new domestic departures were halted. International flights were being handled on a case-by-case basis. The disruption led to airborne holding at airports across the National Airspace System.
The incident follows the deployment of the Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories (SMART) AI tool on November 12. This nationwide ground stop is the first since January 2023. The FAA will maintain the ground stop until the communications issue is resolved and flight operations can safely resume.
