It’s hard not to think “something was hacked”, but really scary if so.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop on Friday afternoon, “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”
A ground stop halts flights at their departure point.
Inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis, the FAA said.
The FAA didn’t immediately comment further.
Nationwide ground stops are extremely rare. In January 2023, the FAA halted flights because of issues with a pilot alert system. Before that, traffic was halted nationwide after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
I just ran across an article saying all planes currently on the ground in the US are to remain on the ground until further notice. The FAA is saying it’s a communications issue. I assume if it was something bigger than that (like a terrorist attack) there would be a lot more news about it.
The stop was placed “DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND FOR REASONS OF SAFETY.” The stop requires that all air traffic set to depart U.S. airports remain grounded.
The cause of the ground stop was not immediately clear, but an FAA spokesperson says there is a communications problem impacting Air Route Traffic Control Centers, which handle flights going across the country.
Looking at some of the bigger airports on FlightRadar24, you can see a ton of planes on the taxiways, though I don’t look at those airports very often, so maybe it’s how they always look.
Interesting. I’m looking at the FAA’s website that tracks all this kind of traffic management stuff. Basically where the airlines go to get their info about weather problems, flow delays, etc. Anything ATC is doing to slow things down.
As of right now 4:22pm ET on Fri, their website is showing it’s got all the current status. And no mention of anything out of the ordinary except weather issues in / around NYC. And they are showing ground stops for flights destined for Chicago Midway & O’Hare due to an unspecified equipment outage. But just those two destinations.
According to some of the newest articles: "Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an X statement a short while later that the stop was “due a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.”
An MSNOW reporter at Jacksonville International Airport was told by people getting off flights that the pilots said there was going to be at least a 7 hour delay.
Please be mindful that this is a Breaking News thread, meaning that only new developments in the situation belong here. For general discussion, there’s a new thread started here:
This made me laugh out loud, for some reason
I know TPTB have their reasons for being vague, and in fact may not even have all the information at this point, but “extraordinary circumstances” are not words of comfort.
I’m sorry if you intended it as a general discussion thread. It was reported by another poster as a duplicate, and upon review, it looked like that to me.
There’s another thread now started in GD, so let’s use that one for general discussion. My apologies for the misunderstanding.
