FAA Halts Flight Departures at All US Airports

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Friday the suspension of all flight departures from US airports due to a communications problem that struck air traffic control centers across the country.

Duffy said that Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) technicians are investigating the communications problem, and that authorities will provide immediate updates if new information becomes available. CNN quoted the FAA as saying that the decision to halt flights came as a result of communications problems that affected a number of air traffic control centers.

The FAA had issued a "very rare" order halting air traffic nationwide at all airports, based on "exceptional circumstances" and "safety-related reasons." The air traffic control notice stated: "All departing aircraft must remain on the ground until further notice," while incoming international flights are being handled "case by case."

According to flight tracking site FlightAware, about 7,000 flights in the United States were delayed or cancelled as a result of the decision. Flightradar reported that about 3,100 aircraft were on their way to US airports, and that no flight had taken off from those airports.

As for the cause, CNN reported, citing two law enforcement officials, that preliminary information indicates the incident is not a cyberattack. Aviation expert Mary Schiavo said in remarks to CNN that early indicators do not support the cyberattack hypothesis, suggesting that the failure was likely caused by new computer systems attempting to interact with old systems. She noted that the FAA had announced earlier in the day that it was preparing to operate a new artificial intelligence-based tool known as SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Traffic) to help manage air traffic across the entire US airspace, explaining that new systems sometimes face difficulties in linking with old systems.

The New York Times reported that notices related to the air traffic control system had disappeared from an FAA website.

This is the first time flights have come to a complete halt in the United States since January 2023, when the pilot notification system failed, and before that the last nationwide full halt of flights had been issued in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.