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On Friday, the US Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide decision to stop aircraft taking off “for exceptional circumstances and safety reasons,” after it had previously reported serious problems with air traffic control communications.
Shortly before the announcement, the administration grounded air traffic in Chicago due to problems with air traffic control communications.
“All departing aircraft must remain parked in place until further notice,” the administration added. The administration explained that international flights will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
The administration has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The administration indicated that the suspension of flights across the country was due to disturbances in air traffic control frequencies and radar systems.
For his part, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said, “The ground stop at all airports within the country was due to a defect in communications with air traffic control centers,” noting that the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the problem.
This decision means that planes currently in the air can land, while planes on the ground are not allowed to take off.
This is the second nationwide decision to stop all departing flights since the attacks of September 11, 2001. The other decision was in January 2023, when the authority stopped all domestic flights departing for less than two hours.
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Last year, Congress approved $12.5 billion in funding to modernize the agency's outdated communications system.
On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration and the White House asked Congress to allocate another $30.1 billion to deal with other problems.
Flight Aware indicated that about 7,000 flights in the United States were delayed or canceled due to the suspension of flights nationwide.
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