Flight operations resumed across the United States on Friday night after aviation authorities lifted a nationwide ground stop that disrupted hundreds of flights, with officials ruling out a cyberattack and attributing the incident to ageing air traffic control infrastructure.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) restored departures after suspending flights nationwide over communication problems affecting regional air traffic control centres.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the country’s airspace had reopened, blaming the disruption on outdated equipment rather than external interference.
“US airspace is now opened up,” Duffy said, attributing the travel chaos to “old hardware.”
The FAA said aircraft departures could resume after the nationwide ground stop, which officials linked to “overloaded” and “outdated” systems.
Despite the lifting of the restrictions, airlines warned that normal operations would take time to restore because aircraft and flight crews had been displaced by the disruption.
The FAA had ordered all departures to stop on Friday afternoon following what it described as “extraordinary circumstances” caused by communication failures at regional air traffic control facilities. The decision forced hundreds of flights to divert and disrupted travel plans for thousands of passengers.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the incident appeared to have been triggered after new technology was introduced into an ageing air traffic control system, overwhelming the network.
Mullin, however, cautioned that another outage could not be completely ruled out while investigations continued.
“There are no footprints showing an attack, and it appears to be mechanically driven,” Mullin said, adding that officials were still working to determine the exact cause.
Officials also said there was no evidence linking the disruption to the widespread Microsoft outage reported earlier on Friday.
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The nationwide ground stop was the first since January 2023, when a major FAA computer system failed, and only the second of its kind since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, at least 827 flights were diverted during the disruption. Of those, 670 returned to their departure airports, while 157 were rerouted to alternative destinations.
Among the airports receiving diverted flights were Washington Dulles International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and Nashville International Airport.
More than 11,000 flights carrying over 1.5 million passengers had been scheduled to depart US airports after 4 p.m. EST, increasing the likelihood of further delays and cancellations.
Unlike the airspace shutdown that followed the September 11 attacks, pilots were not instructed to land immediately, as communication with airport control towers remained available throughout the incident.
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