The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered a nationwide ground stop on all departing flights due to technical issues. The agency has listed an equipment outage (with comms issues noted in advisories).
The order, issued by the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center at approximately 20:54 UTC (12:54 p.m. PST), applies to every U.S. airport. All aircraft still on the ground are to remain stopped until further notice. Flights already airborne are being allowed to continue to their destinations, while inbound international flights are being handled on a case-by-case basis.
The official advisory states:
DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND FOR REASONS OF SAFETY.
ATTENTION ALL AIRCRAFT OPERATORS, BY ORDER OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION COMMAND CENTER ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED.
ALL DEPARTING TRAFFIC SHOULD REMAIN GROUND STOPPED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. INBOUND INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS WILL BE MANAGED ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS.
Nationwide ground stops are rare. The last full national stop of this type occurred in January 2023 after a failure of the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system. That outage lasted roughly 90 minutes and caused thousands of delays and cancellations.
As of early afternoon Pacific time, the situation remained fluid. Passengers with flights scheduled for the remainder of the day are advised to check their airline’s app or website for the latest status, as recovery times will depend on how quickly the underlying equipment issues are resolved.
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