The Latest: FAA lifts nationwide ground stop on flights that halted travel across the US
FILE - A Federal Aviation Administration logo is displayed in the tower at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, March 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
The Federal Aviation Administration says airplane departures can resume after the agency lifted a nationwide ground stop caused by communications problems.
The FAA had grounded all flights nationwide Friday afternoon, causing hundreds of flights to be diverted. Officials cited “extraordinary circumstances” caused by communications problems at regional air traffic control centers.
Certain U.S. flights had already been cleared for departure, including flights within Alaska and Hawaii, as have some international flights that are departing US airspace.
This was the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023 when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned. Before that the last time had been after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication yet that “this was a nefarious attack against us. It’s just a telecommunications outage.”
Multiple NBA, NHL and college teams were left stranded following the groundings, throwing a busy sports weekend into chaos.
Here is the latest:
Duffy says getting planes back in the air will take some time
At the time of the ground stoppage, there were 3,500 airplanes in the sky.
“And last time I looked, we had less than, 400 in the airspace,” Duffy said.
He added, “it’s going to be slow” getting air traffic back to normal.