US grounds ALL flights for just the THIRD time in history over ‘extraordinary safety reasons’

The US Federal Aviation Administration halted departures nationwide after a communications problem affected air traffic control centres, citing safety concerns. The disruption matters because it paused flights across the country and exposed the importance of reliable systems for managing air traffic.

The FAA described the cause as a temporary telecommunications outage, and Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said technicians were investigating. Around 3,100 aircraft were reported heading to US airports; inbound international flights were to be handled individually. The article says this was the third nationwide grounding in US history, following the shutdown after 9/11 and a 2023 alert system failure. Officials said there was no known cause yet and pointed to a request for $30.1 billion to modernise aviation infrastructure.