FAA orders nationwide US ground stop over air traffic control outage, cancelling thousands of flights
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop for all continental US flights on Friday, lasting more than four hours from 15:54 EST, the longest such stoppage since the 11 September 2001 attacks. Officials attributed the disruption to overloaded routers and aging equipment during a copper-to-fibre upgrade by contractor L3Harris, with no evidence of a cyber-attack. Thousands of flights were cancelled and delayed, stranding passengers and rippling to global aviation, while the Trump administration raised its air traffic modernization funding request to $50 billion.
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Nationwide FAA Ground Stop Exposes Aging Air Traffic Control Vulnerabilities
A nationwide ground stop on Friday evening halted air travel across the United States, highlighting persistent weaknesses in the Federal Aviation Administration's aging air traffic control infrastructure. The outage was triggered by efforts to replace an outdated router, which overloaded circuits in the national air traffic network and disrupted communication between controllers and pilots. By Saturday, thousands of flights had been canceled and airports were crowded with stranded travelers, with recovery expected to take days. The incident was only the third such ground stop this century and followed earlier failures in September and October caused by circuit and fiber optic cable problems. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed Congress for failing to fund systemwide upgrades, demanding $50 billion as the White House confronts the airport crisis. The FAA said the root cause of the ground stop remains unknown.
Read sourceCopper wire upgrade caused nationwide US flight ground stop, transport secretary says
US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said a nationwide ground stop that cancelled thousands of flights was caused by an issue following a copper-to-fibre upgrade by contractor L3Harris. He said the government is investigating whether the problem stemmed from "incompetence" by the company or faulty equipment, and that a cyber-attack is not believed to be the cause, though an investigation continues. A router being worked on began flooding other air traffic control systems, creating communication issues with planes and prompting the government to shut down airspace for safety. FAA head Bryan Bedford said there was "zero evidence of anything nefarious" or AI-related. No flights took off from the continental US for over four hours from 15:54 EST Friday; more than 3,500 flights were cancelled and over 2,000 delayed on Saturday. Duffy warned similar issues could recur unless Congress approves $30.1bn in air traffic control upgrades requested by President Trump.
Read sourceFAA nationwide ground stop lifted; Duffy blames overloaded routers, thousands of flights canceled
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a rare nationwide ground stop for all US airports on Friday, a disruption lasting more than four hours that caused widespread cancellations and stranded passengers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed aging, overloaded technology and called on Congress to provide $50 billion for a complete overhaul, warning that similar outages will recur unless the system is modernized. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of a cyberattack, though investigations continued. FlightAware reported 9,132 cancellations and 7,030 delays on Friday, with 12,506 total cancellations across Friday and Saturday morning. The ground stop was lifted Friday night, and Duffy said operations were slowly returning to normal Saturday, though delays and cancellations were expected to persist as airlines rescheduled flights and repositioned aircraft and crews.
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US grounds all flights for hours over air traffic control tech issues
All flights in the continental US were grounded for more than four hours on Friday after intermittent instability in air traffic control communication and radar systems, the longest such stoppage since the 11 September 2001 attacks. The FAA lifted the ground stop at 20:15 EST, but officials warned disruption would persist for days as airlines cleared backlogs. More than 15,000 flights were delayed or cancelled, affecting an estimated 1.5 million passengers, with knock-on effects felt globally including in Europe and Australia. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed antiquated equipment and overloaded routers, saying the system needs a major overhaul, while Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no evidence of a cyber-attack or rogue AI. Former TSA Administrator John Pistole said he was "not optimistic" about how quickly operations would recover and questioned whether the fault could recur ahead of Thanksgiving travel.
Read sourceTrump administration raises aviation funding ask to $50B after nationwide ground stop
After a nationwide ground stop of flights on Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin increased their request for air traffic modernization funds to $50 billion, up from the $30.1 billion formally requested a day earlier. Duffy said instability in radar and communications systems at certain facilities, driven by an "incredibly old air traffic control system," led to the roughly four-hour stoppage, which he called an emergency and attributed to an abundance of caution. Mullin said the public was never in danger and that the new figure reflects an administration estimate for a complete overhaul rather than a patchwork upgrade. The incident prompted congressional scrutiny, with the Senate Commerce Committee and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee pledging reviews, while lawmakers remain in negotiations over dueling aviation safety bills.
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