{"id":230705,"date":"2026-11-14T19:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T19:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/faa-ground-stop-lifted-why-were-us-flights-grounded-and-whats-next-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-11-14T19:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T19:55:11","slug":"faa-ground-stop-lifted-why-were-us-flights-grounded-and-whats-next-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/faa-ground-stop-lifted-why-were-us-flights-grounded-and-whats-next-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"FAA ground stop lifted: Why were US flights grounded, and what\u2019s next? &#8211; Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The FAA says nationwide ground stop disrupting thousands of US flights was caused by a telecommunications outage.<\/em><br \/>Save<br \/>Share<br \/>FAA grounds all fights across the US over \u2018telecommunication outage\u2019<br \/>Thousands of air travellers across the United States have started the challenge of finding their way home after Friday\u2019s nationwide hours-long ground stop was lifted.<br \/>US Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Saturday addressed the misery facing stranded passengers, telling them \u201cit is safe to fly\u201d as air operations in the country work to return to normal.<br \/>\u201cYou will continue to see some delays and cancellations as carriers reschedule flights and reposition aircraft\/crews where they are needed most,\u201d Duffy wrote in a social media post. \u201cOur top priority right now is making sure travelers get home safely to their families as quickly as possible.\u201d<br \/>On Friday, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a nationwide ground stop imposed earlier in the day that halted departing flights, an order it issued citing \u201cextraordinary circumstances and reasons for safety\u201d.<br \/>The halt, which grounded thousands of flights across the country, marked the country\u2019s longest ground stop in 25 years.<br \/>It was also the second nationwide ground stop of all departures since the September 11, 2001, attacks.<br \/>\u201cEverybody\u2019s safe,\u201d US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said, adding that this was not \u201canother 9\/11\u201d and that there were no suspected cyberattacks.<br \/>Here is what we know:<br \/>The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop at 3:54pm Eastern Time (20:54 GMT) on Friday due to a telecommunications outage affecting air route traffic control centres, which handle flights travelling across the country.<br \/>The FAA confirmed that the nationwide ground stop had been lifted.<br \/>Duffy on Friday said airspace reopened at 8:15pm ET (01:15 GMT on Saturday), after more than four hours of disruption.<br \/>\u201cWe\u2019ve opened up the airspace,\u201d Duffy said, warning that flights would not resume immediately.<br \/>\u201cIt\u2019s going to be slow,\u201d he added, urging passengers to check with their airlines.<br \/>Duffy said flights would resume depending on the availability of pilots and flight attendants, with authorities trying to get as many flights moving as possible on Friday night.<br \/>Aviation analytics firm Cirium said that after 4pm ET (21:00 GMT) on Friday, about 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers were still scheduled to depart from US airports.<br \/>By 7:05pm ET (00:05 GMT on Saturday), at least 827 flights had been diverted, according to Cirium. Of those, 670 returned to their departure airports, while 157 were diverted elsewhere.<br \/>Aircraft already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations and land during the ground stop.<br \/>During the ground stop, international flights were handled on a case-by-case basis, with some allowed to depart despite the restrictions.<br \/><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><br \/>More than 4,700 flights were cancelled and 10,000 delayed on Friday, while another 700 had already been cancelled for Saturday, according to FlightRadar24.<br \/>Aviation analysts said it could take days for airlines to restore their schedules.<br \/>Reporting from Los Angeles International Airport, Al Jazeera\u2019s John Hendren spoke to passenger Nicholas Erdodi, who travelled from New Zealand and was trying to reach Chicago for a conference.<br \/>Erdodi said he had been travelling for 16 to 18 hours before spending another six hours at the airport, where passengers had been forced to leave their plane.<br \/>\u201cThe challenge is you cannot ask anyone here what to do,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<br \/>\u201cLack of information is what bothers me, I mean, and not to mention finding a hotel for the night, not to mention all the cost.\u201d<br \/>Erdodi said he had been rebooked but remained uncertain whether his next flight would depart.<br \/>\u201cI work in tech, I understand what could be going on, but someone needs to tell us,\u201d he said.<br \/>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if someone tells us that we don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening, but please just let us know what\u2019s going on,\u201d he added.<br \/><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><br \/>A nationwide ground stop temporarily requires departing aircraft to remain on the ground until cleared to take off.<br \/>Flights in the air are generally allowed to continue to their destination, but new departures are on strict orders to stay grounded.<br \/>The measure is intended to stop any further aircraft from entering the airspace as the authorities deal with the safety issues.<br \/>The FAA said the ground stop was caused by a telecommunications outage affecting air traffic control systems.<br \/>Duffy said the outage was caused by switches and routers that became overloaded with data and went down, adding that the incident did not involve a total loss of communications or radar capabilities.<br \/>Tony Stanton, a former senior executive with Australia\u2019s Civil Aviation Safety Authority, told Al Jazeera that a US government report published in September warned about problems with the aviation infrastructure before these latest disruptions.<br \/>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/products\/gao-26-107992\">report<\/a>, from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), highlighted ageing copper cables dating back to the 1960s and warned that delays in modernising the system could lead to further disruptions.<br \/>It also noted that while the FAA was trying to implement changes, officials were prioritising speeding up the process and failing to properly schedule changes, meaning switches were often happening at the same time and overwhelming the system.<br \/>On Friday, officials admitted that new technology being added to the nation\u2019s air traffic control system overloaded antiquated parts of it and caused \u201cintermittent\u201d communications and radar gaps.<br \/>Todd Curtis, an aviation safety expert and chief executive of AirSafe.com, told Al Jazeera that the failures appeared to be concentrated in the country\u2019s air route traffic control centres.<br \/>\u201cThere are 21 across the United States, one in Alaska and the other 20 in the lower 48,\u201d he said.<br \/>\u201cThese are the folks who handle the aircraft that are transiting from one part of the country to the other, and they rely on multiple handoffs between controllers.\u201d<br \/>Speaking before Duffy provided further details, Ron Bartsch, a professor of international aviation law at the University of the South Pacific, raised questions about the apparent failure of backup systems.<br \/>\u201cThe whole aviation community is based on redundancy,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<br \/>\u201cSo the fact that a redundant system hasn\u2019t kicked in immediately just raises more questions than what we\u2019ve seen answers to at this stage.\u201d<br \/>Mullin said that there was no cyberattack linked to the nationwide ground stop and that the public was never in danger.<br \/>Duffy acknowledged that tens of thousands of travellers had been stranded and called for $50bn in upgrades to the nation\u2019s air traffic control system.<br \/>About 3,000 flights have safely landed following the order, Mullin said.<br \/>But Duffy warned that it will \u201ctake us some time to get back to capacity\u201d, but he expected operations to be \u201cback up and operational as we come into the heat of travel during Thanksgiving\u201d.<br \/>The Thanksgiving travel period, which begins in less than two weeks, is usually one of the busiest times of the year for air travel in the US.<br \/>Aviation safety expert Curtis also warned that the disruption could continue affecting passengers even after the technical problems were resolved.<br \/>\u201cIf it\u2019s fully resolved, it would take more than a day to get back to normal, to reschedule aircraft,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<br \/>He explained that many airlines operate interconnected networks, meaning passengers often have to change planes at major hubs.<br \/>\u201cSo there could be a bit of a hassle on the part of the airlines trying to figure out how to get everyone to where they have to go,\u201d he said.<br \/>Passengers have been advised to check their flight status directly with their airlines, as delays and cancellations might continue.<br \/>Experts warn that the ageing US air traffic control system is still very much susceptible to further disruption.<br \/>\u00a0Duffy acknowledged the ageing infrastructure.<br \/>\u201cWe have old switches, old routers. We use 1980s little copper lines. It\u2019s an old system that went down and went down everywhere. It got overloaded,\u201d he said.<br \/>Stanton, the aviation expert, questioned why officials said they did not anticipate an outage when risks were identified.<br \/>\u201cThat\u2019s incredibly surprising to me when there was a report published only in September that absolutely talked to this risk at hand that we\u2019re seeing today,\u201d he said.<br \/>He added that the FAA needed better contingency plans to prevent future technical failures from causing disruption.<br \/>\u201cThese are things that can be foreseen, can be anticipated, and we should have plans in place so that the system has a minor impact rather than the major impact we\u2019re seeing today,\u201d Stanton said.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMirAFBVV95cUxQY2haeC1VNGJNSHlpaVA2UllKREpaR1RUMkhBdW80YzNBd3BrdUdLVS1pTHhjOEpVSFRjUDIzcHc2ZFdpWW9rUEE2VVNsRUR1bXN6U00yZmR1OURaSHo5ZUtLd2VUbFZoTVRocmVDUHBkYXpRaUpVcGlFTWpMLUhLbDFBRVgyUVFyRnFUaHk2bF9GeXVremZOZGZ3Zy02N3BLZEtvUlVZbUd3clNU0gGyAUFVX3lxTE1aR0thX3VWS0JkRVRyQ2NMWF9kNHFnVjFTTnU0ZllkSGtLVHhTRHl0UFI5UDBhdVJKUmltdU1EdG1XUW1wTXlxcUtWRkNqdTRDaTRoODVFc1hWdWJ4VjdsSWd1NlZLMnFicUtSYjdKRXJYbUxfRmNld1ZEclJuQ3NCeW5KaDg4UG9zU00tUUNOMm5weTM1STZnV2N4d2l0d3FjYzdOS1c4N1NFX3JDQ1ZCa3c?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FAA says nationwide ground stop disrupting thousands of US flights was caused by a telecommunications outage.SaveShareFAA grounds all fights across the US over \u2018telecommunication outage\u2019Thousands of air travellers across the United States have started the challenge of finding their way home after Friday\u2019s nationwide hours-long ground stop was lifted.US Department of Transportation Secretary Sean [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}