// THE VERGE — FINANZA
FAA ground stop shuts down flights nationwide
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A communications problem is reportedly affecting Air Route Traffic Control Centers.
A communications problem is reportedly affecting Air Route Traffic Control Centers.
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Takeoffs from airports throughout the US largely stopped on Friday after the FAA issued a national ground stop “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” while planes in the air will be allowed to land. The FAA tweeted just after 5PM ET that, “There has been a temporary telecommunications outage - out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted. Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis.” The flight tracking site FlightAware lists 10,494 US flights as delayed and 3,396 flights canceled as of 6:16PM ET.
According to CNN, the last nationwide ground stop in 2023 lasted for about 90 minutes after the NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system for pilots went down, and the last one prior to that was after the attacks on September 11th, 2001.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday afternoon, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters that there is currently no reason to suspect a cyberattack or other national security threat, or any connection to the recent Microsoft Outlook outage, but that so far no cause has been ruled out for the “telecommunications outage.”