What we know about the longest US nationwide flight ground stop since 9/11
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Summary
The FAA lifted a nationwide flight ground stop after more than four hours on Friday. An overloaded air traffic control communications system caused the stoppage, which led to thousands of delayed and cancelled flights; officials said they found no evidence of a cyberattack and that the public was not in danger.Key Facts
- The FAA grounded flights departing within the United States at 15:54 Eastern time and reopened the skies at 20:15.
- FlightAware recorded more than 8,500 delayed flights and nearly 8,000 cancellations on Friday.
- More than 3,500 aircraft were airborne when the ground stop began; some diverted to other airports while others continued to their destinations.
- Eurocontrol suspended US-bound traffic from its member states at the FAA's request, and Sydney airport grounded US-bound flights.
- Air Canada cancelled flights between the United States and Canada; JetBlue cancelled its remaining domestic flights Friday evening, while Delta resumed operations.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the outage could disrupt air travel for several days.
- Duffy said an overloaded legacy communications system affected air traffic control communications and radar; he estimated replacing the system would cost $50 billion.
- Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officials saw no evidence of a cyberattack and ruled out a connection to the Microsoft outage. Officials said passengers were not in danger.
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