FAA lifts longest US nationwide flight ground stop since 9/11

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ended a nationwide ground stop on Friday that lasted more than four hours, the longest such disruption since the 11 September 2001 attacks.

The stoppage was triggered by an “extraordinary circumstance” – a communication failure that overloaded the legacy analogue telecom system used by air traffic control centres. The FAA announced at 15:54 EST that all US‑departing flights were grounded until further notice, affecting more than 3,500 aircraft that were in the air at the time.

FlightAware recorded over 8,500 delayed and nearly 8,000 cancelled flights. Some aircraft were diverted, while others continued to their destinations. By 20:15 EST the FAA began reopening the skies, with flights from San Francisco International Airport among the first to resume.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was “zero evidence” of a cyber‑attack and ruled out any link to the recent global Microsoft outage. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned of a ripple effect lasting several days and estimated a €50 billion cost to overhaul the overloaded system.

International repercussions included the suspension of US‑bound traffic from Eurocontrol member states, a grounding of US‑bound flights at Sydney Airport, and cancellations by Air Canada. Major US carriers such as Delta, United, American and JetBlue have begun restoring services.

Source: BBC News. Photo: Go Journal / Pexels.