US airports face chaos as FAA orders nationwide ground stop
A major telecommunications outage at air traffic control centres left an estimated 1.5 million passengers stranded across the United States.
A nationwide ground stop at United States airports on Friday caused significant disruption after a telecommunications outage affected air traffic control centres, according to News18.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered the stop following the communications failure. FlightRadar24 reported that more than 6,600 flights were cancelled and 8,600 were delayed, affecting an estimated 1.5 million passengers.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the airspace reopened at 8:15 pm Eastern Time, though he cautioned that the recovery process would be slow. The FAA stated that radar and communications were not completely lost during the outage.
At Las Vegas airport, passengers received conflicting information regarding the duration of the delay, with estimates ranging from eight to 24 hours. Some travellers were told wind was responsible for the delays.
The disruption occurred less than two weeks before Thanksgiving and ahead of a weekend of professional and college sporting events. Many passengers, including those travelling for weddings and concerts, faced uncertainty regarding their journeys.
Airlines faced the challenge of clearing the backlog of flights even after the ground stop was lifted.
