WASHINGTON: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it has lifted the rare nationwide ground stop that brought air travel across the United States to a complete standstill. Thousands of passengers were left stranded at airports across the country following the technical failure in the air traffic control system.
The widespread grounding of flights was triggered by a communication outage affecting Air Route Traffic Control Centers responsible for managing air traffic nationwide. The disruption was caused by a frequency outage, which occurs when the radio communication systems allowing pilots to stay in contact with air traffic control (ATC) personnel fail to function properly.
Prior to this incident, the United States last experienced a nationwide ground stop in January 2023, which was caused by a failure in a pilot notification system. Before that, US air travel had only been brought to a nationwide halt following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
