On a Friday afternoon, a contractor's fibre upgrade at a remote site sent a router into overload, and the strain rippled through the vast communications web that keeps American skies orderly. Rather than gamble on the unknown, the nation's aviation authority briefly stilled the sky itself, an act of caution that stranded tens of thousands of plans and reminded many how much modern travel rests on invisible wires. Officials insist no one was in danger and that no hand of an attacker was found, though investigators are still tracing the fault. As the system is rebuilt piece by piece, the episode
US Flights Resume After Longest Nationwide Ground Stop in 25 Years, But Cancellations Continue
Around 12,000 scheduled flights were unable to take off on Friday, leaving many travellers stranded, though officials said no lives were at risk.
On a Friday afternoon, a contractor's fibre upgrade at a remote site sent a router into overload, and the strain rippled through the vast communications web that keeps American skies orderly. Rather than gamble on the unknown, the nation's aviation authority briefly stilled the sky itself, an act of caution that stranded tens of thousands of plans and reminded many how much modern travel rests on invisible wires. Officials insist no one was in danger and that no hand of an attacker was found, though investigators are still tracing the fault. As the system is rebuilt piece by piece, the episode stands as a quiet lesson in how the old and the new must be stitched together.
The ground stop that froze American air travel on Friday lifted around 8.15pm Eastern, after more than four hours, the longest nationwide halt in a quarter century. Some domestic departures resumed that evening, but the real work of recovery had only begun. The FAA expected as many as 5,000 of Saturday's 41,000 flights to be cancelled, and aviation experts warned that airlines could take days to normalise as aircraft and crews were pushed out of position.
The trigger was humble. A contractor replacing old copper wiring with fibre-optic cable at a remote site saw a router begin flooding the system with connection attempts, and the disruption spread to as many as 17 of the 22 regional control centres, unsettling radio links and radar feeds. Because officials could not quickly locate the source, they grounded flights out of caution. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford apologised to travellers and thanked controllers, pilots and crews, while Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed there was no sign of a cyberattack and no lives were at risk.
Pilots had fallbacks such as direct radio contact, satellite phones and tower light signals, so aircraft already in the air landed safely. Airlines waived their usual terms, letting passengers rebook or refund, with some extending the offer into Sunday and Monday. Full restoration is promised by Sunday, but the investigation continues, and the struggle over another $30 billion for modernisation will shape how the system is rebuilt before the Thanksgiving crowds arrive.
The ground stop that froze American air travel on Friday ended at about 8.15pm Eastern, after more than four hours, the longest nationwide halt in 25 years. Some domestic flights began leaving US airports again that evening, but the recovery was only starting. Of the roughly 41,000 flights scheduled for Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration expected as many as 5,000 to be cancelled.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said on Saturday that the air traffic control system was stable and operational. He said around 12,000 scheduled flights were ultimately unable to take off on Friday. "We will still have delays and cancellations today, but that will set us up for a full recovery tomorrow," he said, adding that the worst was behind them but significant recovery work remained. Officials expect airline schedules to be fully restored by the end of Sunday, ahead of the Thanksgiving travel rush. Bedford apologised to stranded travellers and thanked controllers, pilots and flight attendants. Aviation experts cautioned that it could take days for airlines to normalise, because diversions had thrown aircraft and crew schedules out of position.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy laid out the cause on Saturday. On Friday afternoon, a contractor was replacing a section of the air traffic control system's old, discontinued copper wiring with fibre-optic cable at a remote location. The router there began overloading the system, producing more than 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds. That caused intermittent disruptions to communications with aircraft and to radar feeds. Bedford said the instability affected as many as 17 of the country's 22 regional air traffic control centres.
When officials could not quickly find the source, they grounded flights nationwide. Bedford said it was done out of an abundance of caution and that the agency stood by the decision: "I'm sorry that we put you through this, but we did it for the right reasons." Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of a cyberattack and that no lives had been at risk. Duffy said investigators are examining whether contractor error or a faulty router was responsible. Planes already airborne when the stop was imposed landed safely using established procedures, he said.
The reach of the fault comes from how the system is built. Michael McCormick, a former FAA airspace manager now at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, called the network one of the country's largest telecommunications systems. Regional centres, which handle aircraft at higher altitudes between airports, rely on remote radio sites linked by telecommunications networks. Handoffs between controllers require a flight's details to appear on the next controller's display before communication transfers. Bedford said this failure was unusual because it was part of the communication system itself: it "propagated around the country." McCormick described a rolling outage that could hit one centre, ease, then hit another. In September, a similar fault at Newark Liberty International Airport followed the accidental cutting of a backup fibre-optic line by railway construction workers, forcing hundreds of cancellations, but that was confined to one airport.
Experts noted that pilots have fallbacks, including direct radio contact with other aircraft, satellite phones, onboard alerts to nearby traffic, and high-intensity light signals from control towers. MIT professor John Hansman said these allow planes to fly safely as long as controllers can still reach them by radio.
For passengers, airlines must offer free rebooking or a full refund on cancelled flights. Bedford said carriers were waiving their usual terms. Some allowed rebooking for Friday and Saturday travel, while others extended it to Sunday and Monday reservations. He advised travellers to contact their airlines.
The incident lands in the middle of a modernisation effort that began last year after Congress approved $12.5 billion. Officials said about 70 per cent of the copper wiring has been replaced with fibre. Duffy and the White House are pushing for another $30 billion to finish. Separately, Microsoft said its own outage on Thursday, which hit Outlook, Teams and Copilot, was fully resolved and showed no sign of being linked to the ground stop. The next tests are Sunday's promised recovery and the investigation into the router.
Citations marquantes
I'm sorry that we put you through this, but we did it for the right reasons.— FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford
We will still have delays and cancellations today, but that will set us up for a full recovery tomorrow.— FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford
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