US Ground Stop: The Country’s Flights Come to a Halt
The US Federal Aviation Administration has lifted the longest nationwide ground stop of flights since the 11 September 2001 attacks.
The FAA said Friday's stoppage, which lasted more than four hours, was "due to extraordinary circumstances" from a communication issue affecting all air traffic control centers.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of a cyber-attack and that everybody was safe.
How many flights were affected?
The ground stop led to more than 8,500 delayed and nearly 8,000 cancelled flights on Friday, according to FlightAware.
The FAA's initial announcement at 15:54 EST (20:54 GMT) said all flights departing within the US would be grounded until further notice.
More than 3,500 airplanes were in the air at the time. Some were diverted to other airports and others flew on to their destinations.
Hours later, some flights were allowed to take off from San Francisco International airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration opened skies again at until 20:15 EST.
What about international flights?
All US-bound air traffic from Eurocontrol member states was suspended.
There are 42 Eurocontrol member states, including dozens of EU nations, the UK and Turkey, as well as Israel and Morocco.
Passengers travelling from the UK have been warned of possible disruption on Saturday morning.
Brazil received alerts from U.S. authorities to keep planes bound for the U.S. on the ground. There were isolated delays and cancellations (such as the cancellation of LATAM flights, and changes to flights operated by American Airlines or other carriers).
Most overnight and early-morning flights remained on schedule or underwent minor adjustments, with some flights being postponed (e.g., a flight to New York was pushed back to the following morning)
Take care!
Prof. Carl Boniface
For discussion:
1. Who do you feel is to blame?
2. Billions and billions of dollars fluctuate in the infrastructure of the US air system. Should something of this magnitude occur?
3. If you were delayed for hours at an airport, how would you cope?
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