What we know about the longest US nationwide flight ground stop since 9/11
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently implemented its longest nationwide ground stop since 9/11 due to a major technical failure in air traffic control systems. The outage resulted in thousands of flight cancellations and delays, causing significant global travel disruptions.
Why it matters
It highlights the vulnerability of critical national infrastructure and the ripple effects of technical failures on global transportation networks.
Figure caption, US ground stop caused by 'incredibly old air traffic control system', Duffy says
The US Federal Aviation Administration has lifted the longest nationwide ground stop of flights since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks.
The FAA said Friday's stoppage, which lasted more than four hours, was "due to extraordinary circumstances" from a communication issue affecting all air traffic control centres.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of an attack and that everybody was safe.
How many flights were affected? The ground stop led to more than 8,500 delayed and nearly 8,000 cancelled flights on Friday, according to FlightAware.
The FAA's initial announcement at 15:54 EST (20:54 GMT) said all flights departing within the US would be grounded until further notice.
More than 3,500 airplanes were in the air at the time. Some were diverted to other airports and others flew on to their destinations.
Also covering this story
10 other newsrooms covered this event. We read each version separately.
U.S. government grounds all flights across the United States ‘due to extraordinary cirumstances’
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Photos show trouble at airports nationwide as FAA grounds all flights
DHS head Markwayne Mullin says there is not a threat to the U.S. amid FAA ground stop
FAA issues nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports
FAA ground stop shuts down flights nationwide
FAA Grounds All US Flights Until Further Notice
All departing U.S. flights grounded due to communication outage
US flight chaos: Thousands stranded as FAA halts take-offs nationwide – what we know so far
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