WASHINGTON (AP) — Airlines across the U.S. worked to recover from the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years that canceled thousands of flights Saturday, stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers, spread ripple effects around the world, and forced pro and college sports teams to scramble for alternate transportation.
New technology being added to the nation’s air traffic control system overloaded antiquated equipment and caused “intermittent” communications and radar gaps, leading to the flight shutdown of more than four hours, Trump administration officials said.
Airports were slowly returning to normal, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said, with planes taking flight and landing. But the effects could be felt for days. Officials say the system will likely return to normal in time to handle the Thanksgiving travel rush.
The nationwide stop was the first since January 2023, when another key Federal Aviation Administration computer system that sends notices to pilots malfunctioned, and the second since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Andrew Charlton, an aviation consultant, said Friday's stoppage affected about a quarter of the 45,000 flights in the U.S. each day.
“The knock-on effect of that is incredible,” said Charlton, managing director of Aviation Advocacy. “The aircraft doesn’t just fly from A to B and back to B and then stop. It then moves onto C and then over to E and around and around and around. It is, of course, exacerbated if you’re talking about long-haul flights, international flights over the Atlantic or over the Pacific.”
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Thousand of flights nationwide have been canceled or delayed, including scheduled departures from Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
The NFTA, in a message on the airport’s website, urges air travelers to “please check with your individual airlines for specific updates on delays, cancellations and resumed flight schedules.”
Congressman Nick Langworthy, representing New York’s 23rd District, issued a statement late Friday night calling on the FAA to be open with the public about what caused the communication breakdown: “As chairman of the Aviation Safety Caucus, I have for years called for the modernization of our FAA infrastructure. This latest disruption underscores why we can no longer afford to put that work off. Modernizing our air traffic control system comes at a significant cost, but the cost of continued failure is far too high.
“While I am relieved by reports that public safety was not compromised, the disruption caused enormous inconvenience, stress for travelers and their families, and a yet-to be-determined economic impact. Americans deserve a system they can depend on.
“We need full transparency from the FAA and its contractors about what happened, why it happened, and what other vulnerabilities could cause future disruptions. The public deserves answers and a clear plan to prevent this from happening again.
“Funding this modernization is not a partisan issue. Congress must come together to make that funding a reality and ensure our air traffic control system has the modern equipment and reliable backup systems it needs. The flying public cannot afford continued delays in getting this done.”
Governor Kathy Hochul, meanwhile, was critical of the FAA in her own prepared statement released Saturday morning: “America’s airspace ground to a halt yesterday, leaving thousands of flights canceled and travelers stranded across the country. More than 3,500 planes were already in the air as radar and communications systems faltered. We’re fortunate no lives were lost.
“From chronic air traffic controller shortages to repeated communications breakdowns, serious lapses in our aviation system have become a pattern on Sean Duffy’s watch.
“Through it all, he’s been more focused on starring in his own reality show than addressing the crisis at his agency.
“With millions of Americans preparing to travel for the holidays, families deserve answers and confidence in the safety of our skies. Congress must launch a full investigation to determine what went wrong and ensure it never happens again.
“Sean Duffy must resign, or President Trump must remove him immediately.”
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Officials say no one was in danger during ground stop
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told reporters at the White House that no one was in any danger as more than 3,000 flights in the air at the time of the grounding order landed safely.
Duffy blamed Congress for failing to approve more funding for new technology, while downplaying the fact that trying to implement new fixes overtaxed the system. He suggested more disruptions might occur.
“We didn’t think we would have this kind of outage. We did,” he said. “We were able to review what went wrong, and then reboot the system and go. But, you will have more of these.”
Duffy said the failure involved old equipment and was not linked to the FAA’s new AI-powered system, which the agency is rolling out to help predict problems in the sky.
The problem was due to updating a system that can never shut down, Charlton said.
“What you’re watching here is trying to change the tires of your car when the car’s going at 80 miles an hour down the expressway, because nothing stops in aviation,” Charlton said. “It’s a 24/7 operation. And to make changes on the fly, if you’ll pardon that pun, is incredibly complex and dangerous.”
The FAA already replaced thousands of old copper wires with fiber optic lines and upgraded hundreds of radio systems as part of the overhaul that began last year after Congress approved $12.5 billion in funding. Duffy and the White House are pushing for $30 billion more to complete the work.
Past problems have been linked to equipment failures
The problem appeared similar to a regional air traffic control communication outage in September that snarled hundreds of flights across the Northeast, although that disruption was linked to a construction crew cutting a fiber optic line. Aging equipment was also blamed for brief radar outages last year that disrupted Newark airport.
Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said the difference this time was the nationwide scale of the disruption, which left controllers unable to reliably talk to pilots.
“If you don’t have that ability, whether it’s because the old wires that they have are just run down or for whatever reason, you’ve got to stop airplanes on the ground and not put them in the air, where you’re going to risk not being able to communicate with them,” said Arroyo, a former United Airlines pilot.
It differed from the one after 9/11 because planes were not being told to land immediately and pilots likely were able to communicate with ground controllers at airports, Arroyo said.