All departing air traffic in the U.S. came to a halt on Friday afternoon after the FAA issued an emergency ground stop until further notice “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”
In a statement on X (formerly Twitter) the agency noted, “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.”
According to NBAA’s Air Traffic Desk, the stoppage was reportedly issued as a result of frequency and radar outages at several air route traffic control centers (ARTCC). At the time of the ground stop issuance, Flightradar24 reported 3,100 airborne aircraft bound for U.S. airports.
Ground stops are exceedingly rare in the U.S., with the last occurring early in 2023. That situation was blamed on a software glitch, specifically a damaged database file that crashed the FAA’s notam system, and lasted for an hour and a half.
Before that was the nationwide grounding in the aftermath of the 9/11 aircraft hijacking attacks in 2001, as well as during three military exercises under Operation Sky Shield in the early 1960s.
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