The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide FAA ground stop on Friday that halted US flights, a move officials blamed on overloaded, outdated air traffic control equipment. Thousands of flights were canceled.
According to France 24, the stop lasted nearly five hours. ABC News US reports it lasted more than four hours and was the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years. The two outlets differ on the duration.
Flights resumed after the stop was lifted around 8:15 p.m. ET, according to ABC News US. Only a limited number of domestic flights departed immediately.
Trump administration officials said new technology added to the air traffic control system overloaded antiquated equipment. That caused intermittent communications and radar gaps, officials said. France 24 reports that officials said there was no evidence of a cyber attack.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the problems were linked to old legacy equipment and not to the FAA’s new AI-powered system. He warned that "you will have more of these," according to ABC News US.
The figures on cancellations vary by source and by day. France 24 reports that more than 8,200 flights, over 31% of those scheduled in the US, were canceled on Friday. ABC News US reports more than 2,000 flights were canceled Saturday, and says FlightAware counted more than 2,500. Axios, citing FlightAware, reports nearly 3,300 flights into, out of, or within the US were canceled for Saturday as of 5:15 a.m. ET. These figures cover different days and measures, and no single confirmed total has been published.
The stop was the first nationwide stop since January 2023, when an FAA computer system that sends notices to pilots malfunctioned. It was the second since the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to ABC News US.
The FAA has replaced thousands of old copper wires with fiber optic lines and upgraded hundreds of radio systems. The overhaul began after Congress approved $12.5 billion. Duffy and the White House are pushing for $30 billion more, according to ABC News US.
Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said the nationwide scale left controllers unable to reliably talk to pilots, so planes had to be held on the ground.
Officials expect the system to operate normally in time for the Thanksgiving travel rush. Duffy has warned that more disruptions may occur.
The main gaps: no confirmed final cancellation total exists, the airlines and FAA have not responded beyond officials’ comments quoted by ABC News US, the Axios report was available only as a headline and short excerpt, and no independent technical investigation or second source confirms the officials’ explanation of the equipment failure.
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This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.