On a day when the sky over America was suddenly asked to stand still, travelers in airports from New York to elsewhere learned that the machinery guiding their journeys had faltered. The Federal Aviation Administration halted departures across the country for more than four hours, citing a temporary telecommunications outage, and then let them resume. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pointed to an aging air traffic control system and overloaded routers, while officials dismissed the coincidence of a Microsoft disruption the day before. It is a reminder of how much of modern travel rests on
FAA Lifts Nationwide Ground Stop After Four-Hour Telecom Outage Stalls US Flights
Thousands of passengers experienced flight delays and cancellations, and travelers faced crowded gates and gridlocked airport traffic; no casualties are reported.
An incredibly old air traffic control system, overloaded with data
Mark
Four hours with every departure stopped. Why does this one stand out?
Mimi
Because a nationwide ground stop is rare. The FAA said every flight was accounted for, but thousands of delays and cancellations followed anyway, and the scenes at LaGuardia showed it: closed gate areas, idle planes, traffic at a crawl outside.
Mark
What explanation have officials given?
Mimi
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the air traffic control system is incredibly old and that overloaded routers gave inconsistent data, so the system was shut down. The FAA's own wording was a temporary telecommunications outage.
Luke
Keep in mind that the router explanation comes from one official in a press setting. The reporting here has no independent technical confirmation of it.
Mark
And he tied it to funding.
Mimi
Yes. He said the president has asked Congress for a year to fully fund a new system. That links the outage to a policy fight.
Luke
Linking is not proving. The source doesn't show that new funding would have prevented this, so that's an argument, not a finding.
Mark
What about the Microsoft outage the day before?
Mimi
Social media speculated about a connection. Microsoft said it had no indication of one, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said flatly there was none.
Luke
Those are denials, which is different from a published investigation. They're consistent with each other, but we haven't seen a full account of the cause.
Mark
So what do we actually know?
Luke
The stop lasted over four hours, flights resumed, and a backlog remains. Beyond that, the cause is still what officials say it is.
O Pulso
- A rare nationwide ground stop froze all US departing domestic flights, leaving planes lined up on tarmacs with their lights burning.
- Gates emptied into uncertainty as announcements warned of closures and passengers scrambled to learn whether their flights still existed.
- Traffic jammed the approach roads to major airports as cars, taxis and buses crawled toward terminals that could not send anyone onward.
- Officials are working to clear a large backlog of delayed and cancelled flights while denying any link to the Microsoft outage.
- The explanation of an outdated system is now driving a sharper debate over how quickly Congress will fund a new air traffic control network.
On a day when the sky over America was suddenly asked to stand still, travelers in airports from New York to elsewhere learned that the machinery guiding their journeys had faltered. The Federal Aviation Administration halted departures across the country for more than four hours, citing a temporary telecommunications outage, and then let them resume. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pointed to an aging air traffic control system and overloaded routers, while officials dismissed the coincidence of a Microsoft disruption the day before. It is a reminder of how much of modern travel rests on old wiring and quiet infrastructure that people rarely think about until it pauses.
Inside Terminal B at New York's LaGuardia Airport, an announcement drifted over the speakers that the gates area was about to close. Travelers stood in confusion, filming and trying to understand. The cause was a nationwide ground stop ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration for every departing domestic flight in the United States.
The FAA first called it a temporary telecommunications outage and said flights had been halted out of an abundance of caution. The stop lasted more than four hours, a rare event on this scale. LaGuardia urged passengers to check their status with airlines, but not everyone saw the message in time. Clips showed aircraft waiting on the tarmac and vehicles jammed bumper to bumper on the roads leading to the airport.
Thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled, and no casualties were reported. Now airlines and airports are working through the backlog.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed an incredibly old air traffic control system, saying overloaded routers began producing inconsistent data and forced a shutdown. He noted the president has been urging Congress to fully fund a new system. The outage came a day after a large Microsoft disruption, and speculation linking the two spread quickly. Microsoft and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin both said there was no connection, and Mullin acknowledged that conspiracy theories were running ahead of the facts.
The open questions are how fast the backlog clears, and whether Duffy's account of an aging system strengthens the case for funding its replacement.
Inside Terminal B at New York's LaGuardia Airport, an announcement came over the speakers: the gates area was about to close. Passengers in the videos that later spread online stood trying to work out what it meant. The cause was a nationwide ground stop, ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration for all departing domestic flights in the United States.
The FAA first described the problem as a temporary telecommunications outage. In a post on X, the agency said that out of an abundance of caution all flights had been halted. It said every flight had been accounted for and that international flights would be handled case by case. A ground stop on this scale is rare, and this one lasted more than four hours before the agency lifted it.
LaGuardia's official X account passed the news to travelers, saying the FAA had issued a nationwide ground stop for all flights and advising people to confirm their status with their airline before heading to the airport. Not everyone saw that in time. Other clips showed several aircraft lined up on the tarmac with their lights on, and long lines of cars, taxis and buses bumper-to-bumper on the approach roads, with traffic slowed to a crawl.
The halt caused thousands of delays and cancellations at major airports. No casualties have been reported. With departures cleared to resume, airlines and airports are now working through a large backlog of delayed and cancelled flights across the country.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy gave an explanation for the shutdown. He said the country has an incredibly old air traffic control system. According to Duffy, the routers became overloaded with data and began producing inconsistent information, and because of that the system was shut down. He added that the president has spent the last year asking Congress to fully fund a complete build of a new air traffic control system.
The outage came one day after a separate, large Microsoft disruption that hit Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 services for millions of users in more than 70 countries. Speculation about a link spread quickly on social media. Microsoft responded in a post that it had no indication the FAA ground stop was related to any of its services.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took the same line at a recent press briefing. He said there was no connection between the two events and acknowledged that many people were making that leap. He said he understood where internet traffic and conspiracy theories tend to run, and that he could not say it enough.
The immediate question is how quickly the backlog clears. The longer one is whether the explanation Duffy gave, an aging system and overloaded routers, adds weight to the push in Congress over funding a new air traffic control system.
Citações Notáveis
Our routers actually got overloaded with data, and they started to give us inconsistency in the data, and because of that we shut the system down.— Sean Duffy, Transportation Secretary
We have no indication that the FAA's nationwide ground stop is related to any Microsoft services.— Microsoft
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Leia o original em Hindustan Times ↗