FAA Has Ordered a Nationwide Ground Stop at All Airports For Communication Issue, "Due To Extraordinary Circumstances And For Reasons of Safety"

ABC News – The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop Friday for all airports due a communication issue affecting air traffic control.

The agency's alert said the stop was "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety."

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an X statement a short while later that the stop was "due a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers."

"FAA technicians are investigating the issue," he said in an X post.

This is the second time since Sept. 11, 2001. that the FAA has ordered a nationwide ground stop. The last time was in 2023, when the FAA NOTAM system went down and pilots could not get their pre-departure paperwork.

Well, shit. This is the second nationwide ground stop issued by the FAA since 9/11/2001. For a communication issue impacting all air traffic control centers. And unless the FAA is full of shit, even they don't know the reason for the issue. There seems to be some sort of equipment outage. Planes that are currently in the air will allegedly be allowed to land. But if you're at an airport right now, or have a flight coming up... well, I guess you live in that city now. 

I probably shouldn't start wildly speculating as to why this is happening. That feels irresponsible. I guess we hope it's just general incompetence rather than something sinister? At least that's the easiest thing for me to wrap my mind around. CNN says preliminary reports show no indication of a cyberattack, but who the hell knows?

One of the few things we do seem to know is that, shortly before the nationwide announcement, the FAA first halted all traffic in Chicago. Soon after, they stopped takeoffs nationwide.

T's and P's to those who are stuck somewhere. T's and P's to those who had boarded a plane, but were yet to take off when the announcement was made. That's a hell no human should experience. But also T's and P's to anybody working at a rental car desk. That must be one of the worst places in America right now. I imagine the minute this announcement was made at airports, it was a mad dash to rental car place. People in line pleading with each other as to why they need the last rental car most. People demanding cars from the rental car agents who simply don't have any more cars to rent. I wouldn't wish being on either side of that interaction on my worst enemy (that's a lie, I totally would). 

So I guess the airports are about to be a disaster. Even if this nationwide ground stop ends within a couple of hours, the resulting delays and cancellations will be a nightmare. Fuck that. Hopefully everything is ok. I mean… clearly things aren't "ok". But hopefully they're as ok as they can be.