The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiated a nationwide ground stop on Friday afternoon, halting all flight departures across the country. The directive, issued by the FAA Command Center, was prompted by an unprecedented rolling frequency outage affecting communication between pilots and Air Traffic Control (ATC) centers.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the communication failure via a social media post, stating that it impacted all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. The FAA Command Center directive took effect at 3:54 p.m. ET on Friday, November 13, and is scheduled to remain in force until 11:30 p.m. ET. While all departures remain grounded, the FAA stated that aircraft already in flight will be allowed to land, and inbound international flights are being managed on a case-by-case basis.
Reports indicate that the disruption has affected over 7,000 flights. The FAA has not provided specific details regarding the cause of the issue, describing the situation only as "extraordinary." Agency technicians are currently investigating the radio infrastructure failure.
Key facts
- The nationwide ground stop began at 3:54 p.m. ET on Friday, November 13.
- Over 7,000 flights have experienced cancellations or delays due to the outage.
- The failure involves a "rolling frequency outage" affecting radio communication between pilots and ATC controllers.
- The FAA directive is scheduled to remain in place until 11:30 p.m. ET.
- The last nationwide FAA ground stop occurred in 2023 and lasted less than two hours.
Why it matters
The outage has brought focus to the Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories (SMART) tool, a newly deployed AI-assisted system that was integrated into the national airspace system on Thursday, November 12. While the system was designed to optimize routing and save jet fuel costs, its implementation is now under scrutiny following the nationwide disruption.
Background
The ATC system manages over 100,000 flights daily. The SMART tool was previously tested as a pilot project in the Washington, D.C., airspace beginning in September.
Source: Hindustan Times
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