US Flight Shutdown: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lifted the nationwide ground stop in the United States after communication problems disrupted air traffic control services. The agency had temporarily stopped all departing flights on Friday afternoon due to a telecommunications outage affecting 22 regional air traffic control centres. The disruption caused hundreds of flights to be delayed or diverted and affected thousands of passengers.

Why Were Flights Grounded?

According to authorities, communication problems at regional air traffic control centres, which manage flights travelling between airports across the country, led to the grounding of the flights. Addressing a briefing, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the problem was caused by a telecommunications outage. He also stated that there was no indication that the issue was linked to a cyberattack.

The FAA described the situation as an extraordinary circumstance and said the decision was taken for safety reasons. The agency was investigating the communication failure affecting all 22 regional air traffic control centres. Flights were later allowed to resume, however, passengers continued to face travel disruptions.

Sean Duffy Blames Outdated Systems

Duffy further said the flight disruption was caused by outdated systems that had become overloaded with data. He alleged that the Congress had not provided enough funding to replace the old equipment. Explaining the issue, Duffy said, "Do you want Congress to fund this? President Trump has asked for the money. This is analog telecom. Our switches, our routers actually got overloaded with data, and they went down. And I shouldn't say they went down, they started to give us inconsistency in the data from those routers. And because of that, we shut the system down."

He also urged the Congress to provide funds to build a modern air traffic control system. He said, "Give us the resources to build a state-of-the-art air traffic control system. Let's not do a patchwork fix to a system that's critical for every single family. It's not red, it's not red, it's not blue, it's not Democrat, it's not Republican, it's American. Give us the money to fix it."

Earlier, announcing the disruption on X, the FAA wrote, "There has been a temporary telecommunications outage - out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted. Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis."

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Second Since 9/11

This was the first nationwide flight ground stop since January 2023, when a major FAA computer system stopped working. It was also the second such incident since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Air India Issues Advisory

Meanwhile, Air India on Saturday issued an advisory asking passengers to check their flight status amid the nationwide flight disruption in the US. The airline warned that communication outages could affect departures and cause delays to its flights to and from the US. It also advised passengers to check for updates before travelling to the airport.

The advisory read,"A nationwide ground stop is currently in effect across the US due to communication outages affecting air traffic operations. As a result, departures from airports across US are impacted, with possible consequential disruptions to Air India flights to and from the U.S. Passengers are advised to check the latest status of their flights and plan their journey to the airport accordingly. Our teams continue to closely monitor the situation and will share updates as available."

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