The US Federal Aviation Administration has suspended flights nationwide. A communications failure at air traffic control centres has disrupted thousands of flights.
Reuters reports.
The announcement means aircraft already in the air can land, but those on the ground cannot take off. Flight-tracking service FlightAware said that nearly 7,000 flights were delayed or cancelled because of the nationwide ground stop.
“The FAA has issued a nationwide ground stop for all US airports due to communications problems that affected all air traffic control centres. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide an immediate update as soon as we have one,” Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said.
Shortly before that, the FAA halted aircraft movements in Chicago due to communications problems in the control tower.
The FAA said international flights would be handled on a case-by-case basis.
This was the second nationwide ground stop of all departures since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. Another occurred in January 2023, when the FAA suspended all domestic departures for less than two hours.