The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop order across the United States after more than four hours. The lifting of the order permits aircraft departures to resume, though authorities noted that flights will not return immediately to normal schedules.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated that restoring normal travel conditions following Friday's disruption will take considerable time. He observed that tens of thousands of passengers remain stranded, with many likely forced to spend the night at airports.
Secretary Duffy explained that an aging air traffic control telecommunications system became overloaded with excessive data and began generating inconsistent information, prompting technicians to shut it down. He called on Congress to allocate higher funding to modernize the analog infrastructure.
Flight-tracking service FlightAware reported that over 4,400 flights within, into, or out of the US were canceled on Friday, according to Fox News. In addition, more than 10,000 domestic flights were delayed, alongside over 5,100 global cancellations and 26,000 worldwide delays.
US President Donald Trump stated that the breakdown did not appear to be caused by a cyberattack or artificial intelligence, pointing instead to outdated equipment. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin also affirmed that no cyberattack had occurred and that Microsoft systems were not involved.
Nationwide ground stops remain exceedingly rare in contemporary US history, having previously taken place following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and during a safety alert system malfunction on January 11, 2023.
Source: Fox News
🌐
