联邦航空管理局解除全国停飞令，此前故障扰乱数千架次航班FAA lifts nationwide ground stop after outage disrupts thousands of flights

Investing.com -- The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted its nationwide ground stop late Friday, allowing domestic flights to resume after a telecommunications outage halted departures across the United States for more than four hours, causing thousands of flight delays and cancellations.

The FAA confirmed that domestic departures were being permitted again following the hours-long suspension, which disrupted operations at major airports and left airlines facing significant challenges restoring their schedules.

An estimated 1.5 million passengers were stranded by flight cancellations, according to an analysis by aviation data firm Cirium cited by CNN.

The nationwide halt caused U.S. air traffic to decline sharply as aircraft already in flight completed their journeys and airlines were prevented from launching new departures.

Although flights have been cleared to resume, airlines face potentially prolonged disruption as they work to reposition aircraft and crews, accommodate stranded passengers and restore normal operations.

White House officials rule out cyberattack and Microsoft connection Speaking at a White House briefing alongside Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the nationwide grounding was precautionary and that passengers were never exposed to danger.

Mullin said the FAA had maintained control of the situation throughout the disruption, with no aircraft or passengers placed at risk. He also ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the telecommunications failure.

The Homeland Security secretary separately dismissed suggestions that the FAA outage was connected to Thursday’s widespread Microsoft service disruption.

Mullin said there was no connection between the two incidents and sought to reassure the public that the aviation system had remained safe throughout the emergency.

He indicated that efforts to restore the affected systems were progressing, with technical operations moving in the right direction.

The statements provided further clarity about the nature of the outage, although authorities have not yet publicly established its definitive technical cause.

Network router failure emerges as possible cause The nationwide communications breakdown may have originated from problems involving network routers, according to CNN, citing an airline industry source.

The router problems reportedly spread through the system, disrupting telecommunications infrastructure used by air traffic controllers across the country.

Separately, CBS News reported that an update to the private communications network connecting America’s air traffic control system triggered a reboot that resulted in a system crash. The report cited multiple sources familiar with the incident.

The affected telecommunications network is operated by L3Harris Technologies (NYSE), according to CBS News.

The available reporting does not establish that L3Harris caused the failure, and officials have not publicly confirmed whether the reported network update and router problems were directly connected.

The FAA’s investigation into the technical failure remains significant for determining how a telecommunications problem could disrupt air traffic control operations on a nationwide scale.

Nationwide halt disrupts major U.S. airports The FAA initially ordered the nationwide ground stop Friday afternoon after identifying communications problems affecting multiple air traffic control facilities. The agency said the temporary telecommunications outage required a precautionary suspension of departures.

In an initial statement posted on X, the FAA said all flights had been accounted for and that inbound international flights would be handled individually.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the communications issue affected all Air Route Traffic Control Centers, prompting the FAA to halt departures at airports throughout the United States.

The agency’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center issued an extraordinary advisory instructing aircraft operators to keep departing traffic grounded until further notice.

The nationwide order took effect at 20:54 UTC Friday, with the initial advisory extending into Saturday morning.

Earlier FAA advisories had identified equipment outages and communications problems affecting multiple facilities before the restrictions expanded nationwide.

Aircraft already airborne were able to complete their flights, but the suspension of departures created extensive disruption across airline networks.

Major U.S. carriers, including Southwest Airlines (NYSE), Delta Air Lines (NYSE), United Airlines (NASDAQ) and American Airlines (NASDAQ), faced operational disruptions as departures were halted. The resumption of flights does not immediately resolve the resulting scheduling problems.

Airlines must contend with aircraft and crews stranded away from their intended destinations, potentially extending delays and cancellations beyond the period of the ground stop.

First nationwide FAA grounding since 2023 Friday’s disruption marked the first nationwide FAA ground stop since January 2023, when an outage of the agency’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system forced airlines to suspend domestic departures for approximately 90 minutes.

The NOTAM system provides pilots with critical safety information, including runway closures and potential hazards along flight routes.

That incident resulted in more than 1,300 flight cancellations and thousands of delays, raising concerns about the reliability of the FAA’s technology infrastructure.

The only earlier nationwide shutdown of comparable scale followed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when the FAA ordered aircraft to land and closed U.S. airspace to prevent further hijackings.

Unlike Friday’s technical disruption, the September 2001 shutdown was a response to an immediate security threat.

The latest incident has renewed attention on the resilience of the telecommunications systems supporting U.S. air traffic control, particularly as the FAA continues efforts to modernize aging infrastructure.

National Weather Service also reports communications problems Separately, the National Weather Service reported internet and communications failures affecting its systems across the country Friday.

The agency warned that the problems could prevent users from accessing products on its websites or cause outdated information to appear on its platforms. Technical staff were working to restore affected services, according to the NWS.

Authorities have not established any connection between the weather service’s communications problems and the FAA outage.

With domestic departures now permitted to resume, attention is shifting toward the pace of recovery across U.S. airports and the investigation into the telecommunications failure.

The FAA has not yet released a final technical explanation for the outage or detailed findings about the safeguards needed to prevent a similar nationwide disruption.

Louis Juricic and Simon Mugo contributed reporting to the article.