US FAA grounds all departing flights citing ‘extraordinary circumstances’

The US Federal Aviation Administration has halted all departing flights in the country “due ⁠to extraordinary circumstances and safety reasons” after the agency earlier reported serious air traffic control communications issues. The announcement means flights ⁠in the air ​may ⁠land, but flights on the ground cannot take off. Shortly before the ⁠announcement, the FAA halted traffic in Chicago ​due ⁠to air traffic ‌control communications issues. The agency said, “All departing traffic should remain groundstopped until further ‌notice.” The FAA said international ‌flights will be managed on a case-by-case basis. The US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that the stop was due to a communication issue affecting all of the country’s air traffic control centres. He added that FAA technicians are investigating. The flight tracking website Flightradar24 has 3,100 flights currently en route to US airports. It is not clear how the communication issue will affect inbound flights. This is only the second time the US has grounded its departing flights since the September 11 attacks in 2001. A ground stop was issued for less than two hours in January 2023 when a pilot notification system went down. Last year, Congress ​approved $12.5 billion to fix the ‌FAA’s aging communications system, ⁠and on Friday the FAA ⁠and White House asked Congress for another $30.1 billion to ‌address ​other issues. This is a breaking story and is being updated EXPLORE MORE ON THE TOPICS IN THIS STORY