Air travel across the United States was thrown into chaos on Friday after a major air traffic control communications failure forced authorities to ground departing flights nationwide for approximately four hours, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and triggering widespread delays and cancellations.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted the nationwide ground stop after technicians tested the affected systems and determined that flights could safely resume.
The rare shutdown affected airports across the country, disrupting airline operations and forcing passengers to wait for hours as authorities worked to restore communications.
According to flight-tracking data reported by international media, more than 10,000 flights were delayed and over 1,400 were cancelled during the disruption, while hundreds of flights were diverted.
The FAA said the nationwide suspension was imposed as a precaution following a telecommunications outage affecting air traffic control centres responsible for managing flights across the United States.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the failure appeared to be linked to ageing aviation infrastructure, including outdated communications equipment that had become overloaded.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication that the disruption had been caused by a cyberattack or another deliberate act.
The incident was one of the most significant nationwide disruptions to US air travel in recent years.
A similar nationwide ground stop occurred in January 2023 following a failure of an FAA pilot notification system.
Although flights have now resumed, airlines have warned that cancellations and delays could continue as they work to reposition aircraft and crews and restore normal schedules.
The disruption has also renewed concerns about the reliability of the United States’ ageing air traffic control infrastructure and the need for major technological upgrades. (Newswire)
