The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a nationwide ground stop on Friday evening after a communications failure at air traffic control centers triggered chaos at airports and resulted in the longest nationwide stoppage since the September 11, 2001, attacks, according to reports from BBC.
The disruption began at 3:36 p.m., when air traffic control centers experienced disturbances in radar and communication systems, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop at 3:54 p.m. Eastern Time after detecting inconsistent data coming from routers, according to Asharq.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Duffy explained that the routers had been subjected to data overload, which led to the inconsistency in the information being received. He described the current air traffic control infrastructure as an extremely old system.
The @FAAnews issued a nationwide ground stop for all U. S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.
The outage affected 22 regional air traffic control centers responsible for guiding aircraft during transitions between American airports, Duffy said, according to Shorouk News. Before the nationwide order was issued, the FAA had already halted flight movements in Chicago due to communication issues.
The ground stop, which kept departing aircraft on the ground until authorities could ensure system stability, caused significant delays and cancellations. FlightAware reported that approximately 1,100 American flights were canceled and nearly 10,000 were delayed by 5:40 p.m. Eastern Time, according to Asharq News.
The current ground stop is not based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA and ATC.
Other data provided by Flightradar24 indicated that approximately 7,000 flights in the United States were delayed or canceled due to the ground stop, according to BBC. At the moment the decision was issued, 4,042 flights were in the air heading toward American airports, according to Flightradar24.
The disruption extended beyond U.S. borders. Eurocontrol, the agency responsible for coordinating air navigation in 42 European countries, announced a suspension of flights departing for the United States from 5 p.m. Friday until midnight Eastern Time, according to Shorouk News.
Now vs 24h ago. pic.twitter.com/QZ3684zeaK
Aviation analyst Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Co., said that if the ground stop had continued into the evening, it likely would have taken the entire weekend to resolve the resulting disruptions to airline networks, according to Independent Arabia.
The crisis has highlighted the strain on the American air traffic control system, which faces challenges including aging infrastructure, equipment issues, and a shortage of controllers. Duffy said that Congress needs to “provide the necessary resources to build a sophisticated and modern air traffic control system,” noting a requirement of $50 billion for such an update.
The FAA and the White House had previously requested an additional $30.1 billion from Congress to address other issues related to aging airports and air traffic control infrastructure, according to Independent Arabia.
Last year, Congress approved $12.5 billion to modernize the agency’s outdated communication system, according to BBC.
While the ground stop was lifted at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time, Duffy warned that the resumption of departing flights would be gradual and that airlines would need time to return to normal operations, stating, “It will be slow.”
The FAA clarified that international flights would be handled on a case-by-case basis.
President Trump took charge of handling the crisis as soon as it occurred and provided us with the resources and communication tools necessary to move quickly. Molin said
Robert Sumwalt, former president of the National Transportation Safety Board, commented on the magnitude of the event, telling CBS News that no ground stop of this scale had occurred in the United States since the September 11, 2001, attacks. He remarked, “It is absolutely unreasonable for this to happen in our era.”