More than 7,000 flights have been cancelled after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suspended departures at all US airports in a rare nationwide ground stop following an air traffic communications failure. The disruption may be linked to a new AI system, according to speculation circulating among industry experts.
Nationwide ground stop ordered
The FAA said the dramatic move was introduced due to "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety", after the organisation previously reported it was experiencing air traffic control problems. US Secretary of the Department of Transportation Sean Duffy confirmed the order was issued "following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers", signalling the scale of the outage across the country.
The disruption has spilled over internationally too, with several flights from the UK to the US scrapped amid the turmoil. A nationwide ground stop in the US is extremely rare. The last time it happened was January 2023, when a pilot notification system failed, and before that the previous comparable event was the 9/11 attacks.
Speculation over SMART system
As the shutdown unfolded, claims began circulating that the outage may be linked to the FAA expanding use of an $875 million (£700 million) artificial intelligence tool called SMART. FAA fact sheets describe SMART as a system that combines "weather patterns, flight paths, traffic flow and controller staffing metrics" into a single interface designed to support air traffic controllers.
Journalist Paris Schutz highlighted the speculation in a post on X, writing: "NEW: according to House Aviation Subcomittee member Congressman @Chuy4Congress - the speculation right now is the FAA outage could be related to the rollout of the new SMART system - a comprehensive AI-involved system that incorporates weather, traffic patterns, arrival/departure info into one interface for Air traffic controllers. This is not confirmed, but being talked about right now by experts in the industry."
No confirmation yet
There is no confirmation so far that SMART played any role in the disruption, but the timeline has fuelled questions as officials work to restore normal service and passengers face ongoing delays and cancellations.
