The Smart Marty Sky Dispatch
Nationwide Ground Stop Issued
Communications issue at ARTCCs blamed.
A nationwide ground stop has been ordered by the FAA, affecting all U.S. airports, due to a communications issue among the 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs) across the country.
Officials described the outage as extremely rare and gave no timeline for when flights might resume. No further details about the specific outage were released.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced the measure via an X post, stating that FAA technicians are investigating the issue and will provide updates as they become available.
The FAA had previously replaced analog radios with electronic radios, but it is unclear which communications system is implicated in this outage. The last full ground stop occurred in 2023 when the NOTAM system experienced a failure.
The FAA’s statement said the nationwide ground stop was issued for all ARTCCs, with no additional information about causes, scope, or duration beyond ongoing investigation.