FAA Issues Nationwide Ground Stop Due To ‘Extraordinary Circumstances’; DHS Secretary Provides Update

The latest: 

• FAA halts all departures nationwide; flights in the air allowed to continue
• Duffy cites a communications failure hitting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers
• DHS’s Mullin calls it a telecom outage and says there’s no sign of an attack
• Mullin says the fix will take “some time” and he can’t rule out an AI link
• First nationwide ground stop since the January 2023 NOTAM failure

Update (1707ET): DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin says that the ground stop is a telecommunications outage and not terrorism. 

MULLIN: “This was a telecommunication outage throughout the FAA. Out of abundant caution, we have grounded all the flights, and all the flights are accounted for…“”There was no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack against us. It’s just a telecommunication outage as of right now.

More: 

*MULLIN SAYS IT WILL TAKE ‘SOME TIME’ TO RESOLVE FAA ISSUE

*MULLIN ON POTENTIAL LINK TO AI: CAN’T RULE ANYTHING OUT

*MULLIN REJECTS COMPARING FAA ISSUE TO 9/11
 

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The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered a nationwide ground stop on all departing flights due to technical issues. The agency has listed an equipment outage (with comms issues noted in advisories). 

The order, issued by the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center at approximately 20:54 UTC (12:54 p.m. PST), applies to every U.S. airport. All aircraft still on the ground are to remain stopped until further notice. Flights already airborne are being allowed to continue to their destinations, while inbound international flights are being handled on a case-by-case basis.

The official advisory states:

DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND FOR REASONS OF SAFETY.
ATTENTION ALL AIRCRAFT OPERATORS, BY ORDER OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION COMMAND CENTER ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED.
ALL DEPARTING TRAFFIC SHOULD REMAIN GROUND STOPPED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. INBOUND INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS WILL BE MANAGED ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the order on X, stating that the FAA issued the nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports “following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.” He added that FAA technicians are investigating and that updates will be provided as they become available.

Nationwide ground stops are rare. The last full national stop of this type occurred in January 2023 after a failure of the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system. That outage lasted roughly 90 minutes and caused thousands of delays and cancellations.

As of early afternoon Pacific time, the situation remained fluid. Passengers with flights scheduled for the remainder of the day are advised to check their airline’s app or website for the latest status, as recovery times will depend on how quickly the underlying equipment issues are resolved.

Developing…