FAA orders nationwide ground stop over air traffic control outage

The FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop Friday afternoon, halting departures at every U.S. airport after a communications failure disrupted the Air Route Traffic Control Centers that hand off aircraft between airports. The order, issued by the Federal Aviation Command Center, covered domestic departures nationwide. Inbound international flights were being managed case by case.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on social media around 4:16 p.m. Eastern that the stop followed a communication issue affecting the centers and that FAA technicians were investigating. The agency said the halt was ordered "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety."What the FAA's status board showedBy late afternoon, the FAA's National Airspace System status board showed the outage rippling through the system rather than resolving cleanly. Chicago O'Hare reported average departure delays of 90 minutes and increasing, tied to FAA equipment. Newark and Teterboro carried similar FAA-equipment delay codes. Miami and Fort Lauderdale listed delays tied to the national ground stop directly. Reagan National, Dulles, and Baltimore-Washington all reported systemwide delays, and Boston Logan confirmed it was subject to the order.A ground stop this broad is rare. The last two of note were on September 11, 2001, that followed the terrorist attacks on Washington D.C. and New York City, and the January 2023 outage of the FAA's NOTAM system, which the agency traced to a corrupted database file. The cause of Friday's outage had not been identified at the time of writing.What Operators Need to KnowA ground stop this broad affects all. Part 91 and 135 operators will sit in the same queue as the airlines, and flights scheduled during the window should expect delays to cascade through the rest of the day regardless of when the stop itself lifts. Operators should confirm status directly with ATC or their dispatch provider before pushing back; the FAA's board was still showing delays increasing at several major hubs as this was filed.