FAA grounds US departures after communication issues

The FAA’s website attributed the disruption to an “equipment outage” and briefly displayed a notice saying it was experiencing technical difficulties. An alert from the Air Traffic Control System Command Center said all departing flights must remain grounded “until further notice.” Inbound international flights would be “managed on a case-by-case basis.”

A spokesperson for the FAA told TechCrunch the ground stop followed communication issues affecting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers, which manage US airspace. The alert said the measure was taken “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” without providing further details. It was not visible on the command center’s website at press time.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that FAA technicians were investigating the issue. The cause of the equipment outage remained unclear. The disruption came in the same week the administration rolled out an AI-powered tool intended to help air traffic controllers save flight time and fuel costs; whether the tool was related to the outage was also unclear.