FAA Lifts Ground Stop of All Flights in U.S.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted the nationwide ground stop of all flights in the United States, hours after it issued the ground stop. “The nationwide ground stop lifted at 8:15pm ET,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote in a post on X. In his post, Duffy provided a timeline of the day: – At 3:36 p.m. ET, @FAANews experienced telecommunications issues at facilities & TRACONs across the country – The FAA issued a ground stop out of an abundance of caution while 3,500+ planes were in the air – Pilots and air traffic controllers followed established procedures to safely land the aircraft, brining the number in the airspace down to under 400 as of 8pm ET – The FAA confirms they did not lose all radar or telecom, and exceptions were made to allow critical medevac, life-saving cargo, and law enforcement flights to continue operating. As a result of the nationwide ground stop, several airports such as Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were reported to have “no longer” accepted diverted flights, the Guardian reported. According to the outlet, as a result of the ground stop, “at least 600 flights were diverted.” During the nationwide ground stop of flights, Amtrak responded to a post on X in which a person expressed that they were receiving error messages when trying to “book a train.” Amtrak shared that they were “experiencing higher-than-normal call volumes due to ongoing airline issues.” “We apologize for the error messages on both our website and app, as well as the difficulty reaching a representative,” Amtrak wrote. “We’re currently experiencing higher-than-normal call volumes due to ongoing airline issues. Furthermore, we recommend trying again later.”