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Communications failure grounds US departures, disrupting nearly 7,000 flights
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights due to depart from US airports on Friday after a communications outage affected air traffic control centres. The stoppage delayed or cancelled nearly 7,000 flights, while officials said there was no indication it had been caused by an attack.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said technicians were investigating the issue, and Homeland Security Director Markwayne Mullin described it as a telecommunications outage. It was the third time all US departures had been grounded; previous occasions were the 11 September 2001 attacks and a 2023 pilot notification system malfunction that paused domestic departures for under two hours. The FAA says more than 14,000 controllers manage over 44,000 daily take-offs.
In short
- A communications outage grounded departing flights across the US.
- Nearly 7,000 flights were delayed or cancelled.
- Officials said there was no sign of an attack.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “Nationwide FAA ground stop: nearly 7,000 flights delayed or canceled at airports across the US”.