Washington, D.C. (WBEN/AP) - The Federal Aviation Administration said airplane departures could resume Friday after the agency lifted a nationwide ground stop caused by communications problems.
The FAA had grounded all flights nationwide Friday afternoon, causing hundreds of flights to be diverted. Officials cited “extraordinary circumstances” caused by communications problems at regional air traffic control centers.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that outages of the U.S. air traffic control system were caused by an overload of an old, analog system. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin called for further funding to improve the system.
Duffy warned Americans traveling that getting planes back in the air may take time and that getting air traffic back to normal would be slow.
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.
Multiple NBA, NHL and college teams were left stranded following the groundings, throwing a busy sports weekend into chaos.
The FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop at around 8:30 p.m. EST on Friday
The FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop at around 8:30 p.m. EST on Friday
