The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded all flights across the U.S. due to communications issues and for “extraordinary circumstances” and “reasons of safety.”
“By order of the [FAA] Command Center all airports are ground stopped,” reads an advisory Friday to airports and pilots from the FAA Traffic Control Command Center. “All traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice. Inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis.”
The exact cause of the outage is currently unknown, although Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it involves a “communications issue.”
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“The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers,” he wrote on social media. “FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.”
Friday’s grounding marks the second time the FAA has halted flights nationally since Sept. 11, 2001, according to Fox News.
The FAA’s National Airspace System Status at approximately 4:30 p.m. Eastern time showed that O’Hare and Midway airports in Chicago were experiencing equipment outages.
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