United States aviation authorities have lifted a nationwide ground stop after a major communications failure triggered the longest air traffic shutdown since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reopened US airspace at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday (0115 GMT Saturday) following a four-hour freeze. However the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that normal flight schedules will take days to recover.
According to flight-tracking service FlightRadar24, the outage forced airlines to cancel over 6,600 flights and delay 8,600 others with at least 1,500 Sunday flights already scrubbed. Tens of thousands of travelers including international passengers, remain stranded at major airports from New York to Los Angeles. Because the failure stemmed from government systems rather than airlines and carriers are not legally required to compensate stranded flyers.
The disruption began at 3:36 p.m. when data overload caused routers and switches at air traffic control centers to transmit inconsistent radar and communication signals. Duffy confirmed that controllers never lost total contact and safely landed thousands of airborne planes before halting departures.
While the immediate technical fault is resolved the Duffy blamed aging infrastructure for the crisis and urged Congress to approve $50 billion for an urgent system overhaul.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin noted there is currently "zero evidence" of a cyberattack or artificial intelligence interference with stating the failure appears mechanical. The National Security Agency is assisting in the ongoing investigation which reportedly involves a telecommunications network managed by L3Harris Technologies.
Major carriers like American, United and Delta saw shares dip up to 2 percent in after-hours trading as airlines work to reposition crews and clear the massive passenger backlog.
