US government grounds all flights across the United States 'due to extraordinary circumstances'

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights across the United States on Friday afternoon, citing extraordinary circumstances and safety concerns. The agency said the cause was an equipment outage. The FAA's website was itself down briefly around the time of publication, displaying a note that it was experiencing technical difficulties.

An alert from the Air Traffic Control System Command Center, or ATCSCC, said the ground stop prevents aircraft from taking off from departure gates. The message attributed the disruption to extraordinary circumstances and safety reasons without offering further detail, and it was not visible on the ATCSCC website at press time. The alert directed that all departing flights stay on the ground until further notice, while inbound international flights would be handled on a case-by-case basis.

An FAA spokesperson told TechCrunch the ground stop followed communication issues affecting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers, which manage airspace across the United States. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that FAA technicians are investigating the issue. What caused the ongoing FAA equipment outage remains unclear.

The disruption arrived in the same week the administration rolled out an AI-powered tool for air traffic controllers aimed at saving aircraft flight time and fuel costs. It is unclear whether the outage is related to that rollout.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there is no indication yet that the incident was a nefarious act, but he warned that recovery is going to take some time. The FAA and Homeland Security remarks came as updates to the initial account of the ground stop.

The ground stop affects travelers and airlines nationwide, with departing aircraft required to remain grounded and international arrivals subject to individual review. The FAA's website outage added a further layer of disruption for users seeking information from the agency during the incident.

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