Washington (GNP): The United States grounded all flights for several hours on Saturday after a major communications outage that officials blamed on decades-old technology. The nationwide stop disrupted travel across the country and left hundreds of thousands of passengers in limbo.
Some travelers were pulled off planes moments before departure by airline staff who appeared to have little information about what was happening. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted the groundstop after about four hours, and the administration of President Donald Trump said there was no evidence of foul play.
The scale of the order is rare. It was only the second time such an alert has been issued in US airspace since the 9/11 attacks, and the only other national stop in that period followed a pilot notification system failure in January 2023. After 9/11, no aircraft flew for days.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the outage came from an aging system. He pointed to old switches and routers and 1980s-era copper lines, saying the network was overloaded and failed everywhere at once.
That explanation fed directly into a funding argument. Duffy had formally asked Congress on Thursday for $30.1 billion to upgrade and modernize the US air traffic control system, and he repeated the call as the groundstop ended. He said Congress must give the president the resources to finish the bill.
The cost of the disruption was already clear by then. Almost 6,000 flights were canceled, including some international routes, according to FlightAware, and recovery was expected to take time. Footage from airports showed full gates and planes waiting on taxiways.
Security officials moved quickly to address one concern. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told a press conference there was zero evidence of a cyberattack or an AI attack. He also ruled out any link to this week’s Microsoft outage, which knocked email systems offline for millions of users, public services and businesses worldwide.
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For passengers, the lack of clear information made matters worse. Some were told their flights were delayed by wind, while airport boards kept showing departures as normal and mobile boarding passes suggested some flights were already under way.
At New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Tiara Johnson was trying to reach Orlando for a concert. She said her departure was pushed from 7:55 to 8:30, then 9:30, then 10:30, leaving her frustrated and stuck.
In Las Vegas, long lines formed at rental car counters as stranded travelers looked for another way home. Susan Sardina said she was already on her flight to Orange County, California, when passengers were told to get off. Joseph Anderson, 72, who was trying to fly from Las Vegas to Oakland, said highways would likely be jammed too if the whole country was stopped.
The timing adds pressure. US airspace is among the busiest in the world, and it is heading into its most hectic stretch as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches.
Duffy said, “This is a legacy system problem,” adding that the old system went down everywhere.
Managing Editor at Global News Pakistan (GNP), with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Riphah International University, graduated with a Gold Medal. Reach out at sabahtareengnp@gmail.com
