FAA Nationwide Ground Stop Update: Some Flights Slowly Start to Resume
by Daniel McCarthy
Photo: NYC Russ / Shutterstock.com
The nationwide ground stop that impacted thousands of flight starting on Friday afternoon is starting to come to an end.
Flights have begun taking off from San Francisco International (SFO), just after 3 p.m. local time. The airport said that Pacific-bound flights are now cleared to depart from SFO, including destinations in Hawaii and Asia. Some international flights east bound over the Atlantic have also been approved for departure.
The majority of the U.S. is still stuck under a ground stop. American Airlines confirmed that in a statement just before 8 p.m. EST.
“The FAA’s nationwide ground stop remains in place, though some flights from certain airports are beginning to receive clearance to depart. Most departures remain paused, and we expect continued disruption to our schedule, including unavoidable cancellations,” American said.
According to FlightAware, almost 10,000 flights in, out of, or through the U.S. have been delayed and another 5,600 or so have already been cancelled. Both those numbers are expected to keep climbing and the impact is forecasted to last at least into Saturday, even if the stop is lifted, as planes and crew get repositioned.
The outage started at 3:54 p.m. EST, after the FAA ordered that all departing traffic remain on the ground until further notice, while saying that inbound international flights will be managed on a case-by-case basis.
In a brief statement accompanying the order, the FAA said the sweeping halt was enacted “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety”.
The last nationwide ground stop before Friday came in January 2023 after an overnight failure of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) pilot-alerting system. The only other one, aside from that one and today’s, came on 9/11 when FAA issued the first nationwide ground stop in U.S. history, halting all civilian departures before escalating to a complete airspace closure that ordered all 4,500+ airborne flights to land immediately.
