FAA Lifts Nationwide Ground Stop That Blocked Takeoffs for Hours

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FAA Lifts Nationwide Ground Stop That Blocked Takeoffs for Hours

TL;DR

  • A communications problem caused a nationwide ground stop for takeoffs in the US on Friday afternoon.
  • The FAA issued the ground stop at 3:44 PM ET due to "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety," allowing planes in the air to land.
  • The ground stop was lifted at 8:15 PM ET, but significant flight delays and cancellations are anticipated.
  • Transportation Secretary Ryan Duffy cited an aging air traffic control system and overloaded analog telecom devices as the cause.
  • An earlier report suggested an update to the air traffic control system's private communications network, operated by L3Harris, triggered the outage.