US Grounds All Flights Amid Unprecedented Air Traffic System Outage
According to the International Desk of Webangah News Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States issued a nationwide order to halt all outgoing flights from airports across the country on Friday due to what it described as “extraordinary circumstances” and safety considerations. The agency stated that this restriction would remain in effect until further notice.
Reports indicate that the U.S. Air Traffic Control System Command Center issued Notice 111, titled “Nationwide Flight Stoppage,” at 3:54 PM Eastern Time. The official FAA message, effective from 3:53 PM Eastern Time and scheduled to last until 11:00 PM the same day, declared: “Due to extraordinary circumstances and safety considerations, we inform all users of aircraft that, by order of the Federal Aviation Command Center, all airports are subject to flight stoppage. All departing flights must remain stopped until further notice. International arriving flights will be managed on a case-by-case basis.”
Prior to the issuance of this notice, Anna Giaratli, an investigative reporter for The Washington Examiner, had published images of advisories detailing a nationwide halt to flights to and from all centers until further notice, citing widespread communication frequency failures. One of the initial advisories also mentioned intermittent disruptions in communication frequencies across several centers.
An anonymous source within the FAA, who provided these documents to Giaratli, described the situation as “completely unprecedented.” As of 3:59 PM Eastern Time, the nationwide flight stoppage had not yet been posted on the FAA’s public National Airspace System status page, and the agency’s official X account and newsroom had not released separate statements.
The U.S. Secretary of Transportation confirmed the grounding of outgoing flights at all airports nationwide, attributing the cause to issues with the communication systems. He added that FAA technicians were actively investigating the problem and would provide immediate updates as new information became available. The Secretary also emphasized that this communication disruption had affected all air traffic control centers along flight paths.
CNN, citing the FAA, reported that the cessation of all takeoffs stemmed from communication problems impacting multiple air traffic control centers. Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that advisories related to the air traffic control system had disappeared from an FAA website. Several aviation experts informed the newspaper that over a thousand aircraft were en route to U.S. airports at the time of the decision. Bloomberg News, referencing a specialized website, also reported on multiple disruptions affecting air traffic control communication frequencies.
