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

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

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”.

The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop at 3:54pm Eastern Time (20:54 GMT) on Friday due to a telecommunications outage affecting air route traffic control centres, which handle flights travelling across the country.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said airspace reopened at 8:15pm ET (01:15 GMT on Saturday), after more than four hours of disruption.

“We’ve opened up the airspace,” Duffy said, warning that flights would not resume immediately.

“It’s going to be slow,” he added, urging passengers to check with their airlines.

Duffy said flights would resume depending on the availability of pilots and flight attendants, with authorities trying to get as many flights moving as possible on Friday night.

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