US Flight Outage: FAA Lifts Ground Stop; 3,500+ Flights Grounded
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop that grounded more than 3,500 US flights. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed radar instability, while delays spread to US-bound services from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a nationwide ground stop at 5:15pm Pacific time after the US flight outage grounded more than 3,500 flights. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the root cause was a radar "instability" issue that forced the shutdown of domestic airspace.
The FAA had ordered the stop for "extraordinary circumstances" and "reasons of safety". Duffy first cited "a communication issue impacting all Air Route Control Centers" and said FAA technicians were investigating.
Cause still under investigation
The agency also described the trigger as "a temporary telecommunications outage" and said it continued to investigate after lifting the order. The two accounts of the fault, radar instability and a communications problem, have not been reconciled in public statements so far.
The stoppage came as the FAA rolls out an AI air traffic tool. The agency has said it needs fewer air traffic controllers than previously thought and has cut its workforce by 2,000.
Delays reach Australia
The halt also disrupted US-bound travel from Australia. Sydney and Melbourne airports said flights were affected after American authorities stopped departures and delayed landings at US airports.
A Sydney airport spokesperson said it was "monitoring the situation closely" and told passengers to check with their airlines. Sydney airport confirmed the ban on US arrivals was lifted shortly before 1pm local time.
Some passengers on US-bound flights from Sydney said they sat on the tarmac for three hours before departing. One plane needed extra fuel after running its air-conditioning for several hours.
At Melbourne, a Los Angeles flight due to leave shortly after 10am was delayed by almost three hours. A Dallas flight scheduled for 10am left at around 1pm, and two services due at 12pm and 12.45pm were also held. By 3pm, all delayed Melbourne flights had departed.
Four flights from Brisbane were delayed, and two had left by 3pm. Qantas thanked passengers for their patience and pointed travelers with upcoming US flights to its website.
Political blame
Ari Emanuel, the WME and TKO executive, used the outage to criticize former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Emanuel, whom President Donald Trump considers a close friend, wrote on X that Buttigieg made "zero progress modernizing the FAA" in four years.
"No one's hands are clean here," Emanuel wrote, adding that Buttigieg "left a failing system in place". Duffy separately said the old system was behind the airspace shutdown.
The FAA has not said when it expects to finish its investigation.
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