The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights across the United States on Friday. The agency cited a nationwide communications failure among air traffic control systems as the cause.
The order halted departures at airports nationwide until further notice. It marked one of the broadest stoppages of US air travel in recent memory.
Air traffic controllers lost reliable communications links between key systems. The failure affected coordination across multiple regional facilities.
Airlines began holding aircraft at gates and diverting inbound flights. Passengers faced delays and cancellations as the grounding took effect.
The FAA said it was working to restore communications and assess the scope of the outage. No timeline for resuming flights was given.
Aviation analysts noted that communications failures of this scale are rare. The incident raised questions about backup systems and aging infrastructure.
Federal officials urged travelers to check with their airlines before heading to airports. Further updates were expected as the investigation continued.
