US experiences longest nationwide flight ground stop in 25 years
What's the story
The United States witnessed its longest nationwide flight ground stop in 25 years on Friday, with thousands of flights delayed. The disruption was caused by "intermittent" communications and radar gaps in the air traffic control system. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a five-hour ground stop, affecting over a million travelers and approximately 11,000 scheduled flights.
Technical glitch
Trump administration officials explain the cause of disruption
The Trump administration officials attributed the disruption to new technology being added to the air traffic control system.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said that "new equipment, new technology" was overwhelming older systems.
He said there was no indication of a cyberattack or rogue artificial intelligence involvement in this incident.
Travel chaos
At least 827 flights were diverted during the disruption
At least 827 flights were diverted during the disruption, with major airports like Washington Dulles International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport among those affected.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said he couldn't guarantee such an incident wouldn't happen again in the future.
The ground stop was lifted Friday night, but full recovery is expected to take days due to planes and crews being out of position.
Historical context
Experts compare incident to September's regional air traffic control outage
This incident is similar to a regional air traffic control communication outage in September, which had caused major disruptions across the Northeast.
Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said this time was different as it happened on a nationwide scale, preventing reliable communication between controllers and pilots.
The ground stop was also unlike the post-9/11 scenario where planes were immediately told to land; here, pilots likely were able to communicate with ground controllers at airports.