Overview
- The FAA issued an advisory stopping all departing flights across the United States and cited ‘‘extraordinary circumstances’’ and safety as the reason for the order.
- Officials report a communications problem affecting Air Route Traffic Control Centers that some outlets have described as a possible radio frequency outage but the precise cause has not been confirmed.
- Planes already in the air are being rerouted to the next operating control center and inbound international flights are being handled on a case-by-case basis while departures remain grounded.
- U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said FAA technicians are actively investigating the disruption and that authorities will provide immediate updates as they become available.
- Ground stops are rare emergency measures because ARTCCs manage flights en route across large regions of national airspace, and this action is likely to cause widespread delays and international schedule disruptions until the problem is resolved.