Nationwide FAA Ground Stop Lifted, but Flight Delays Spill Into the Weekend
By Scott Blaine Hoffman
Air travel across the United States came to a standstill Friday afternoon when the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop at about 4 p.m. Eastern. The agency said communication problems were affecting several Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the facilities that guide planes at cruising altitude between airports.
The order stayed in place for more than four hours before the FAA lifted it at about 8:15 p.m. Eastern. Federal transportation officials later said the outage came from telecommunications routers in the air traffic control system that became overloaded with data, and the Department of Homeland Security said it was not a cyberattack. Delta, United and American said Friday evening that they were resuming flights.
The ripple effects are still being felt. More than 10,000 flights were disrupted during the stop, and on Saturday the FAA said departures were resuming while airlines kept working through delays and cancellations. Some college sports teams had to find other ways to travel, and a few games were moved to Sunday.
Why it matters
Nationwide ground stops are extremely rare. The last one came in January 2023 after a failure of a system that sends safety notices to pilots. Because planes and crews ended up stuck in the wrong cities, recovery takes days, not hours, and it lands just as travelers start booking and taking trips for the Thanksgiving rush.
What to watch
If you're flying this weekend, check your flight in your airline's app before leaving home, since many cancellations now come from crews and aircraft being out of position. The FAA posts live airport delay information at nasstatus.faa.gov. Look for any travel waiver your airline has posted, and remember that under U.S. Department of Transportation rules you're entitled to a cash refund if your flight is canceled or significantly delayed and you choose not to travel. Watch for the FAA's findings on what overloaded the system. Stuck at an airport or seeing long lines? Share your photos and video on PeoplesReporting.
Sources
- FAA: FAA Statement on Nationwide Ground Stop
- CNBC: FAA lifts ground stop after more than four hours, but flight cancellations will stretch into the weekend
- CNBC: U.S. flights resume after FAA ground stop, but travel disruption continues
- NBC News: Ground stop lifted hours after stranding thousands of flights across the U.S.
- NPR: FAA lifts the nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports
Daily Headlines summarize reporting from the sources above in our own words. They are not eyewitness reports. Seeing this story where you are? Report it.