Department Of Homeland Security Gives Update On Ground Stop At National Airports

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights across the country late Friday afternoon “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety," the agency said.

The order was issued "following communication issues" impacting regional air traffic control centers that direct planes among airports, the agency said in a statement.

The order was only the second ground stop since one was issued after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, according to Reuters. A brief, two-hour ground stop was also issued in 2023.

The FAA's technicians are investigating, the agency said. They did not say how long the ground stop will remain in place.

The FAA issued an updated statement around 5 p.m. saying, "There has been a temporary telecommunications outage — out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted. Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis."

Media reports quoted the Department of Homeland Security as saying they saw no evidence of a "nefarious attack." But they did not have a timeline for when the ground stop might end.

Sen. Andy Kim said, "We need answers, and we need this fixed immediately. And we need to finally upgrade air traffic control technology across the country. This can't keep happening."

At Newark Airport, the list of departures merely said "Data currently unavailable." The website FlightAware showed that the last departure from the airport was at 3:36 p.m. They said more than 300 flights had been delayed on Friday.

A man posted on social media around 4 p.m. that he was at Teterboro airport and his pilot said flights were grounded and "Can’t get ground to air communication."

Patch will update this breaking story when more information is available.