US grounds all departing flights following nationwide communication outage
Nearly 7,000 flights were disrupted on Friday after a communication issue impacted all Air Route Traffic Control Centres across the country.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted all departing flights across the United States on Friday due to a communication outage at air traffic control centres, according to Moneycontrol.
Aviation tracker FlightAware reported that the ground stop disrupted nearly 7,000 flights. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated on X that the issue impacted all Air Route Traffic Control Centres.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Director Markwayne Mullin said preliminary findings pointed to a telecommunications failure. He told reporters there was no indication of a nefarious attack or deliberate interference.
This nationwide grounding is the third time all departing US flights have been halted. Previous shutdowns occurred on September 11, 2001, and in January 2023 following a pilot notification system malfunction.
FAA technicians worked to identify and resolve the problem. The agency manages over 44,000 daily departing flights using more than 14,000 air traffic controllers.