U.S. government grounds all flights across the United States ‘due to extraordinary cirumstances’
The FAA has issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. flights due to an equipment outage and safety concerns. Technicians are currently investigating the cause of the communication failure.
Why it matters
A nationwide grounding of all flights is an extremely rare event that causes massive disruption to global travel and logistics.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday afternoon that it has grounded all flights across the United States due to “extraordinary circumstances” and issues related to safety.
The FAA’s website said the cause is an “equipment outage.” The site itself was down for a brief period at the time of publication, with a note that the website was “experiencing technical difficulties.”
Per an alert sent by the Air Traffic Control System Command Center , or ATCSCC, the FAA said the ground stop means that aircraft cannot take off from departure gates. The message said that the disruption was “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” but did not specify further. The alert was not visible on the ATCSCC website at press time.
The alert stated that all departing flights must remain on the ground “until further notice.” Inbound international flights will be “managed on a case-by-case basis,” it said.
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2 other newsrooms covered this event. We read each version separately.
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