FAA grounds all flights over communications outage

FAA halts all flights Friday

The FAA issued a total ground stop Friday afternoon. Travelers are now stranded in airports and sitting on runways. The cause is being attributed to communication difficulties.

Mullin rules out terrorist attack

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin spoke at the White House Friday afternoon. He said there is no reason to be concerned and no terrorist threat to the U.S.

“We're getting a ton of calls saying, is this a terrorist attack? Everybody's safe.”

Mullin: it's a telecom issue

Mullin said the situation boils down to a telecommunications issue. There was no prior indication of a nefarious attack, though officials are still investigating and not ruling anything out.

“It is just a telecommunication outage as of right now.”

All flights accounted for

Mullin said all flights are accounted for. Out of abundance of caution, all flights have been grounded. Incoming international flights and those still in the air will be handled case by case.

“Out of abundance of caution, we have grounded all the flights, and all the flights are accounted for.”

Not a nine-eleven situation

Mullin was very emphatic multiple times that this was not a nine-eleven situation. He said he does not think this is affecting other countries.

Two U.S. areas unaffected

Mullin said there are two places in the U.S. that were not affected by the communications outage. He could not share more details about which areas those were.

Restoring communications first

Officials are working first to restore communications to the full extent and make sure all flights are on the ground. No specific timeline was given for resolution.

No quick resolution expected

Mullin was asked if the process would take hours or days. He said it is not going to be turned around within the hour and will just take some time.

Not linked to new AI system

The FAA rolled out an AI air traffic tool nationwide earlier this week. Mullin said the outage today is not connected to this AI system.

Microsoft outage not connected

Mullin was asked if there was any possible connection to the Microsoft outage that happened yesterday. He said he did not see any reason to connect those two situations.

President briefed on situation

President Trump has been briefed on the outage. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been speaking with the president. The situation was called unprecedented.

Trump staying in Washington

Trump is expected to stay in Washington this weekend. He is planning to depart Monday for Asia, where he will visit the Philippines and China for two summits.

Communications still unclear

Officials are still able to communicate with certain planes in the air. The specifics of which communications elements are affected remain unclear and are being described broadly as a widespread telecommunications issue.

Guidance on departures pending

Information remains unclear, especially on grounding flights versus departing flights. No guidance has been issued yet on whether people should go to airports.