US grounds all flights for hours, sparking travel chaos

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday issued a rare nationwide ground stop for all departing flights across the United States due to a major telecommunications outage impacting Air Route Traffic Control Centers.

Over 11,000 flights were disrupted, affecting an estimated 1.5 million passengers and multiple regional air traffic control centers. The US Transportation Secretary attributed the failure to aging telecommunications infrastructure, overloaded switches, and network routers. The ground stop has been lifted, though airlines warned that residual delays and schedule backlogs would continue for days.