Timeline of the FAA nationwide ground stop: How it developed
Planes were grounded for more than four hours Friday.
Millions of airline passengers were stranded in airports after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights over a telecommunications issue on Friday.
The incident disrupted weekend plans as officials raced to fix a problem with Air Traffic Control Centers and Terminal Radar Approach Control facilities, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
Here is a timeline of events as they developed. All events are in Eastern Time.
Friday, 3:36 p.m.
Duffy told reporters that there was "instability" in radar and communications for Air Traffic Control that manages flights that are crossing the country. These flights are in the air.
The disruption is not a complete blackout, but there were intermittent comms and radar, according to Duffy.
3:54 p.m.
The FAA orders the nationwide ground stop, "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety."
"Attention all aircraft operators, by order of the federal aviation command center all airports are ground stopped. All departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice. Inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis," the FAA alert said.
4:16 p.m.
Duffy posts a statement on X providing more details.
He claims that the ground stop was due to "a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers."
Roughly 3,500 flights are in the air when the ground stop is ordered.
5:00 p.m.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin addresses the situation with reporters.
He reiterates that the situation is a telecommunication issue.
"There is no indication, and we had no reason to believe as of right now that this was a threat to the United States," he said, adding that the federal government was still probing for a cause.
7:00 p.m.
Two hours into the ground stop, 3,719 flights are canceled and 10,218 flights are delayed, according to Flightaware.
8:15 p.m.
The FAA says the nationwide ground stop is over, after more than four hours.
8:30 p.m.
Duffy and Mullin brief the press about the lifted ground stop.
The transportation secretary blamed old technology that became overloaded for "instability" and "inconsistency" in radar and communications affecting the air traffic control system.
Asked what was different about the system on Friday, Duffy said "we're still working on the details of what went wrong today."
Saturday, 6:00 a.m.
By Saturday morning, 3,374 flights are canceled and 1,008 are delayed nationwide, per FlightAware.
11:00 a.m.
Duffy updates the press on the investigation into what prompted the ground stop.
He reiterated that it did not appear to be a cyberattack, and may have been caused by an upgrade to fiber cables.
"In at least one of our remote FAA locations, a contractor was doing routine maintenance to switch telecommunication lines from old copper wire, and they were bringing it over to fiber," Duffy said.
1:00 p.m.
By Saturday afternoon, over 4,500 flights are canceled, according to FlightAware.
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