Developing: FAA grounds all departing flights nationwide after air traffic control failure

Update — Friday, 8:15 p.m.

The FAA has lifted the nationwide ground stop. The agency announced on its website at 8:15 p.m. Eastern — a little over four and a half hours after the stop began — that “the FAA Command Center nationwide ground stop has been cancelled.” Departing flights are moving again.

Flights will not be back to normal immediately. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it will take “some time” to get schedules back to capacity, but gave no timeframe. He blamed outdated air traffic control technology for the communications outage, saying the FAA started seeing instability in radar and communications systems at 3:36 p.m. He said he expects flights to be “back up and operational” by the Thanksgiving travel rush.

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all departing flights nationwide Friday afternoon after a communications failure hit air traffic control centers across the country. Planes already in the air are being allowed to land. Nothing on the ground was taking off until further notice.

The order came from the FAA's Air Traffic Control System Command Center at 3:54 p.m. Eastern, telling all airports to keep departing traffic on the ground “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” The advisory was filed through 11:30 p.m. Eastern, but the stop itself was to run until further notice. The FAA lifted it around 8:30 p.m.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the stop followed a communication issue affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the regional facilities that guide flights between airports. Reports indicated the problems began at about 3:30 p.m. at the FAA's Kansas City center before spreading. FAA technicians are investigating.

FlightAware reported nearly 7,000 flights delayed or cancelled. As of 6:40 p.m. Eastern, more than 10,000 flights were delayed and more than 3,000 cancelled across the country. International flights heading to the United States are being handled case by case.

No sign of an attack, officials say

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters outside the White House that a telecommunications outage throughout the FAA prompted the stop, and that there is “no prior indication as of yet that this was nefarious attack against us.” He said the flights were grounded “out of an abundance of caution,” and stressed that “this isn't a safety [threat] to the American people or another 9/11.” He said all flights in the United States are accounted for.

Friday's halt was the second nationwide ground stop of all departures since the September 11, 2001, attacks. The last was in January 2023, when a pilot notification system failed.

What we don't know yet

• When flight schedules will fully return to normal — the FAA has given no timeframe.

• Which system failed, and what caused the outage.

• How long the delays will ripple through the weekend.

Anyone flying this weekend should check with their airline before heading to the airport. This story will be updated as the FAA provides more information.