FAA grounds flights nationwide after communications issues spark massive delays

• The FAA issued a national ground stop Friday. It's continuing.
• It cited "extraordinary circumstances" and "reasons of safety."
• Airports are affected from coast to coast, and the FAA hasn't given an estimate on when the stop could end.

The Federal Aviation Administration late Friday afternoon issued a nationwide "ground stop," affecting flights across the country.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said just after 4:15 pm. Eastern time that the nationwide flight traffic halt came "following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers."

"FAA technicians are investigating the issue," he said in a post on X. "We will provide immediate updates as we have them."

The outage comes the same day as the FAA deployed SMART, a new AI tool to help air traffic control. ASI, the company that makes the SMART system for the FAA, said that Friday's issues weren't "based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA and ATC."

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a press conference Friday, when asked if the AI system might be related to the outage: "That's what we're looking at."

Microsoft, which faced massive issues across its services this week, also said that it had "no indication" the ground stop was related to any Microsoft services.

Meanwhile, the FAA said that the ground stop was due to "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety."

At least 7,000 flights have been delayed so far, per Flightradar24.

Homeland Security says FAA ground stop isn't a safety issue

Mullin said the ground stop wasn't a safety issue. He called it a communications-related issue. He said he doesn't want people to assume this is a safety threat to the American people or "another 9/11."

He added that Duffy is "on this" and that he was "on the phone earlier with the president." He emphasized that "everybody is safe" and "there is no fear to the public."

When asked about the timeframe, he said they hadn't "discussed any timeframe."

As of late Friday afternoon, delays already were piling up at airports across the country, according to the FAA's monitoring system: At Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, outside of New York City, the average delay was more than 75 minutes. At the Houston-Bush Intercontinental Airport, it was 60 minutes and rising. And it was even worse at Chicago O'Hare, where delays were 90 minutes and rising.

The FAA notice said that inbound international flights would be managed on a "case-by-case basis."

"The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for all US airports following communication issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers," an FAA spokesperson told Business Insider. "FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide updates."

Pilots in the air have a system for these issues

Mark Stephens, a retired Delta Air Lines pilot, told Business Insider that pilots have a system for these situations to maintain safe distances from other aircraft and land within their limits.

Planes en route during a ground stop can still land; they "continue via the flight plan, and then start using backup methods."

The last time a nationwide ground stop occurred was in January 2023, and it lasted only about 90 minutes. Before that, it was in 2001 on 9/11.

Airlines are also alerting their customers. United said, on its website: "Due to a nationwide ground stop by the FAA, we're holding planes from taking off at this time. Planes already in flight will continue. We'll update you as we learn more." And Delta said: "Delta flights are currently being impacted by an ATC-mandated nationwide ground stop."

Stephens said this could create a snowball effect into the weekend: "Long delays will turn into a crew rest nightmare," he said. "Tomorrow is going to be a very difficult reset as pilots and flight attendants will be all over the country, and planes will be stuck in cities without crews."

He added that "major hubs don't have space for all these planes."

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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