FAA grounds all US departures over equipment outage and extraordinary circumstances
On Friday afternoon the Federal Aviation Administration halted all departing flights across the United States, citing an equipment outage and “extraordinary circumstances” tied to safety. An Air Traffic Control System Command Center alert said aircraft could not leave departure gates until further notice, while inbound international flights would be handled case by case. The notice was not showing on the ATCSCC site at the time of reporting, and the FAA’s own website was briefly down with a message that it was experiencing technical difficulties.
An FAA spokesperson told TechCrunch the ground stop followed communication problems affecting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X that FAA technicians were investigating. What triggered the outage has not been established.
The disruption arrived in the same week that the administration introduced an AI-powered tool meant to help air traffic controllers cut aircraft flight time and fuel use. It is not known whether that rollout is connected to the failure. For travelers, the practical effect is a nationwide freeze on takeoffs until the agency lifts the stop, with overseas arrivals decided individually rather than under a single rule.
Continue in the app — vote & join in ➔