NEW YORK: The United States' Federal Aviation Administration says airplane departures can resume after it lifted a nationwide ground stop caused by communications problems.
The FAA had grounded all flights nationwide Friday (Nov 13) afternoon, causing hundreds of flights to be diverted. Officials cited "extraordinary circumstances" caused by communications problems at regional air traffic control centers.
Certain US flights had already been cleared for departure, including flights within Alaska and Hawaii, as have some international flights that are departing US airspace.
This was the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023 when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned. Before that the last time had been after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication yet that "this was a nefarious attack against us. It's just a telecommunications outage."
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a communications issue affected the regional air traffic control centers that direct planes between airports nationwide. – AP
