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FAA ground stop lifted: Why were US flights grounded, and what’s next?

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In short

Federal officials managed the fallout from a rare telecommunications outage that triggered the third nationwide halt of domestic departures since September 11, 2001. The crisis stemmed from traffic control center routers and switches becoming overwhelmed with data, though airborne planes were permitted to continue flying safely. Travelers now face days of lingering disruptions as airlines work to reposition crews and clear immense flight backlogs. The hours-long system shutdown triggered over 4,700 cancellations, leaving approximately 11,000 scheduled flights affected nationwide according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Key points

  • Travelers should anticipate extended delays and potential cancellations over the coming d…: Travelers should anticipate extended delays and potential cancellations over the coming days due to displaced flight crews and backlogged schedules.
  • Safety critical systems remained operational as radar and communications were not complet…: Safety critical systems remained operational as radar and communications were not completely lost during the data overload.
  • Federal authorities confirmed that everyone remained safe during the disruption and that…: Federal authorities confirmed that everyone remained safe during the disruption and that the outage was not another September 11 event.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

The FAA says nationwide ground stop disrupting thousands of US flights was caused by a telecommunications outage.

FAA grounds all fights across the US over ‘telecommunication outage’

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lifted a nationwide ground stop imposed on Friday that halted departing flights, an order it issued citing “extraordinary circumstances and reasons for safety”.

The halt, which grounded thousands of flights across the country, was lifted on Friday evening.

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This was the third nationwide ground stop of all departures since the September 11, 2001, attacks.

“Everybody’s safe,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said, adding that this was not “another 9/11”.

Here is what we know:

What happened?

The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop at 3:54pm Eastern Time (20:54 GMT) on Friday due to a telecommunications outage affecting air…

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