The Federal Aviation Administration has ended a nationwide grounding after a communications problem cancelled around 4,700 flights and caused travel chaos for thousands. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said US airspace reopened at 8.15pm after a four hour shutdown – the longest nationwide grounding in the US since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
What Caused the Grounding
Writing on X, Duffy provided a “breakdown” of what happened: “At 3:36 p.m. ET, @FAANews experienced telecommunications issues at facilities & TRACONs across the country.
“The FAA issued a ground stop out of an abundance of caution while 3,500+ planes were in the air. Pilots and air traffic controllers followed established procedures to safely land the aircraft, bringing the number in the airspace down to under 400 as of 8pm ET.
Safety and Exceptions
“The FAA confirms they did not lose all radar or telecom, and exceptions were made to allow critical medevac, life-saving cargo, and law enforcement flights to continue operating.”
More than 10,000 flights were delayed on Friday, and another 700 had already been cancelled for Saturday, according to FlightRadar24.
Official Response
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin jokingly blamed the incident on it being “Friday 13th” in a press conference alongside Duffy.
“Welcome to Friday the 13th, right? You know, I want to make sure everybody understands that there is no connection between this and Microsoft,” said Mullin. “I know a lot of people are making that jump. This is – so far what we've seen, there is actually no cyberattack. We're still working through that process; our teams are working.
“There was never any lives at risk, there was no flights at risk, the FAA was able to handle it. We did it out of an abundance of caution. But I do understand the internet traffic, and where all these conspiracies start running towards.
“I just can't say this enough, all your loved ones are safe, we are working to resolve the issue, and we hope to have operations up and going normal at some point.”
