FAA Grounds All US Flights Until Further Notice

No reason was immediately given for the sudden grounding on Friday.Photograph: Michael H/Getty ImagesThe Federal Aviation Administration grounded all US flights Friday afternoon, due to “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” the agency said in a statement. Flights already in the air will be allowed to land, the agency said, but no new ones are permitted to take off.In a post on X, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that the ground stop was related to a communication issue affecting Air Traffic Control Centers, and said that agency technicians are investigating.The FAA has not provided any additional details, and the agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Nationwide ground stops are rare. The FAA halted all air traffic on September 11, 2001. In January of 2023, a ground stop was issued after an outage to a critical system that the FAA used to distribute real-time data and warnings to pilots, known as NOTAM (Notice to Air Mission).This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.Aarian Marshall is a staff writer covering transportation systems and cities. Before joining WIRED, she wrote for The Atlantic’s CityLab. Marshall is based in San Diego and is developing opinions about tacos. ... Read MoreWired Coupons