The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a ground stop on Friday, November 13. Halting all flights in the US is rare. This is just the third time it has ever happened – and the firs time was on 9/11.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin blames the ground stop on a telecommunications outage, though, not terrorism. However, he added that the Trump administration didn’t know for sure the cause. “This isn’t going to just be resolved and turned around within the hour,” he explained. “This is going to take some time.”
September 11, 2001, was the first time the FAA issued an emergency ground stop. In the wake of the terror attacks, that stop was unprecedented and it lasted for multiple days. Only once since then before now have flights been grounded nationwide. On January 11, 2023, a contractor accidentally deleted files in the FAA’s NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) pilot safety alert system, and planes were grounded for about 90 minutes.
The FAA also asked Mexico to ground all flights scheduled to arrive in the US for now. This is a developing story, and details are currently limited. Stay tuned for more updates.
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