All flights in the United States are grounded until further notice “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
The FAA issued the ground stop “following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a social media post. “FAA technicians are investigating the issue.”
Air Route Traffic Control Centers are regional facilities that handle flights going across the country.
“Traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice,” the FAA said in an advisory. “International flights will be managed on a case by case basis.”
Uh, holy shit.
I’m pretty sure the last time this happened was 9/11, right?
Technically this is different. 9/11 they forced planes to land at the nearest airport or literally be shot down. This just prevented new takeoffs and stopped planes from entering US airspace. Still serious, but not as total. The 9/11 one had like small regional airports with planes just parked like a parking lot it was crazy.
There was a 90 minute ground halt in 2023 because of a fuck up. They also closed down the airspace around El Paso in 2025 because of a fuckup involving idiot admin officials playing with a military laser. So I’m gonna guess this is either something really fucking scary or really fucking stupid.
I say it’s both
There was one other incident in 2023.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_FAA_system_outage
2023, but otherwise yes