FAA lifts nationwide ground stop after thousands of flights disrupted

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a nationwide ground stop on Friday evening after hours of disruption affected thousands of flights across the country.

Flight cancellations and delays are expected to continue through the weekend.

At a press conference, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed the country's "incredibly old" air traffic control system for the nationwide ground stop. He asked Congress for 50 billion U.S. dollars in emergency funding to overhaul the aging air traffic control infrastructure.

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, who was also at the press conference Friday evening, said that while nothing was completely certain at that point, there were no indications that a cyberattack was responsible.

Earlier, Duffy said on the social media platform X that the FAA had issued the nationwide ground stop following a "communication issue" impacting all air route traffic control centers.

U.S. media reported that the FAA had issued an advisory citing "extraordinary circumstances" and "reasons of safety" as grounds for the nationwide ground stop, describing it as a rare move.

More than 10,000 flights were disrupted, according to a report by CNBC, which noted that more flight cancellations were expected to extend into Saturday.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the nationwide ground stop does not appear to be the result of a cyberattack or artificial intelligence, according to Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy.

"It doesn't seem like that," Doocy told "The Ingraham Angle" after speaking with Trump by phone. Trump believed that the disruption appeared to stem from "a bunch of old broken stuff" that the FAA relies on to keep air travel operating.

Earlier on Friday, Eurocontrol said that all flights departing from its member states for U.S. airports were suspended at the request of the FAA. The suspension covers departures between 2200 GMT on Friday and 0500 GMT on Saturday.

The U.S. nationwide ground stop was the first since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned, and the second since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.