The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a ground stop for all flights in the United States on Friday afternoon, immobilizing aircraft nationwide after a communication outage affecting air traffic control. Departures were suspended for several hours before traffic gradually resumed.
The disruption affected air traffic control communications, the link between controllers and aircraft that is central to keeping flights safely separated. Because the failure reached the national level, the FAA halted departures across the country rather than only at the affected facilities. Additional outlets have described the measure as motivated by safety, a precaution taken while controllers could not reliably communicate with pilots.
The exact duration of the suspension has not been specified in the reporting available. What is established is that the ground stop lasted several hours and that flights have since resumed. The root cause of the communication failure is not yet clear, and it remains unknown whether any incidents occurred during the outage.
France 24 reporter Thibault Franceschet has been covering the story. Further details on the cause of the outage and on any effects on passengers and airlines had not been established at the time of reporting, and the FAA's full account of the failure is awaited.