From CNBC · Leslie Josephs · · 2m
FAA grounds all US flights for four hours
Overloaded routers knocked out air traffic control systems nationwide, disrupting over 10,000 flights and stretching chaos into the weekend.
In brief
Overloaded routers knocked out air traffic control systems nationwide, disrupting over 10,000 flights and stretching chaos into the weekend. The FAA halted all US flight departures for over four hours on Friday after telecommunications routers overloaded with data failed at multiple air traffic control centers…
Nationwide ground stop halts all departures
The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop on Friday afternoon that lasted more than four hours, disrupting thousands of departing flights across the country.
Over ten thousand flights disrupted
More than ten thousand flights were disrupted during the nationwide ground stop, affecting the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers, including some sports teams.
Routers overloaded with data
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said telecommunications routers were overloaded with data and went down, affecting multiple air traffic control centers that guide high-altitude aircraft.
“They went down”
No cyber attack, officials say
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication the issues were a threat to the United States and that it does not appear to be a cyber attack.
“appears this was mechanically driven”
Ground stop lifted after four hours
The FAA canceled the ground stop at eight fifteen pm ET Friday after it lasted more than four hours, citing a temporary telecommunications outage that halted flights out of an abundance of caution.
Airlines cancel more flights ahead
JetBlue Airways canceled the remainder of Friday's flights aside from European routes, plus others scheduled for Saturday so crews and planes could resume normal operations.
Aging technology blamed for failures
Transportation Secretary Duffy said US air traffic control infrastructure will continue to fail, citing aging technology. The US is in the middle of an overhaul and Duffy urged lawmakers for more funding.
“It's going to continue to fail”
Second nationwide stop since nine eleven
Nationwide ground stops are extremely rare. The last was in January two thousand twenty-three after a pilot alert system failure. Before that, traffic halted nationwide after September eleventh, two thousand one.
The big picture
The FAA halted all US flight departures for over four hours on Friday after telecommunications routers overloaded with data failed at multiple air traffic control centers, disrupting more than ten thousand flights.
