British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have cancelled or delayed flights from UK airports after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all flights nationwide. The FAA halted departures "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety."
Flights from UK airports affected
British Airways cancelled a flight to New York that had been scheduled to depart from London Heathrow at 10.30pm on Friday. A spokesman for Manchester Airport confirmed that three US-bound flights scheduled to leave on Saturday morning, all operated by Virgin Atlantic, are likely to be affected if the issue is not resolved soon.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: "We’re aware of the ground stop order issued by the Federal Aviation Administration for all US airports. We’re closely monitoring the situation and assessing any impact to our flights. We advise any customers due to travel to check their flight status at virginatlantic.com."
Cause and response
US transportation secretary Sean Duffy said the FAA is investigating a communications issue affecting regional air traffic control centres, according to the Associated Press. This is only the second time flights have been grounded across the US since the September 11 terror attacks in 2001; the previous grounding occurred in January 2023 due to a system error.
US homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin said: "There is no reason for the public to be afraid or scared for your loved ones. This isn’t another 9/11… This is a telecommunications outage." He added: "Throughout FAA, out of abundant of caution, we have grounded all the flights, and all the flights are accounted for."
Impact and next steps
Mr Mullin said there is "no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack against us. It’s just a telecommunication outage as of right now." He acknowledged it is "a crisis" and warned it will take "some time" to resolve, adding that people should not expect things to be "turned around within the hour."
A spokesperson for American Airlines said: "The FAA has temporarily paused departures nationwide. Flights already in the air can continue to their destinations. We expect disruption to our schedule for the rest of the day, depending on the length of the FAA’s nationwide ground stop." Passengers are advised to check their flight status with their airline as the situation develops.
