Flight suspension across the United States lifted, 4,000 flights canceled

Large-scale chaos broke out in the U.S. air transportation system on Friday the 13th! Due to an abnormality in the air traffic control communication system, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) once ordered flights across the United States to stop taking off, causing hundreds of flights to be rerouted and thousands of flights to be affected. The FAA subsequently announced the lifting of the nationwide grounding order, allowing flights to resume taking off, but flight delays and passenger travel disruptions are expected to continue.

According to foreign media reports, the FAA issued a nationwide ground ground suspension order on Friday afternoon, pointing out that there were communication problems at regional air traffic control centers across the United States. Based on special circumstances and flight safety considerations, flight departures were suspended. This is also the first time that the United States has implemented nationwide grounding measures since the FAA's critical computer system failure in January 2023.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said authorities are investigating a communications anomaly affecting 22 regional air traffic control centers across the United States. These centers are responsible for managing aircraft flight routes between airports. Once communications are blocked, it will directly impact the national air traffic operations.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin pointed out that the incident was related to an interruption in telecommunications services, and there is currently no indication that the communication failure was related to a cyber attack. Trump administration officials attributed the problem to an overloaded air traffic control system and outdated equipment.

The sudden grounding disrupted the schedules of a large number of passengers. Washington lawyer Jeff Dubner said that the Alaska Airlines flight he was on had been delayed for about 30 minutes and was about to taxi to the runway to take off when it suddenly stopped. He admitted that he was quite frustrated, thinking that this incident might be more than just an ordinary flight delay, and wanted to know the real cause.

As for international flights, Mullin said they will be handled on a case-by-case basis and some flights have resumed taking off on Friday night. Alaska Airlines pointed out that some flights in Alaska and Hawaii were not affected.

After the FAA lifted the grounding order, air traffic across the United States gradually resumed operations. However, the knock-on effect caused by a large number of flight rerouting and delays is expected to last until at least late Friday night, and the cause of the failure still needs to be further clarified by the authorities.