FAA Grounds All Departing Flights Across America. Nationwide Air Traffic Control Failure Sparks Rare Shutdown.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide halt to departing flights Friday after a communications failure affected air traffic control centers across the United States, disrupting operations at major airports as thousands of passengers faced delays and cancellations.

More than 7,800 flights had been delayed across the United States and approximately 350 canceled as of 4:45 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware data cited by The New York Times. The figures reflect the day's total disruptions and do not establish how many were caused specifically by the FAA outage.

The FAA issued its emergency order shortly before 4 p.m. ET, citing "extraordinary circumstances" and "reasons of safety." All departing flights were instructed to remain on the ground until further notice, while aircraft already airborne could continue toward their destinations.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that a communications problem had affected all Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the facilities responsible for managing aircraft traveling between airports across the country.

"The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for all US airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers," Duffy said in a statement.

"FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them," he added.

The disruption affected all 22 regional air traffic control centers, according to the Associated Press.

The scale of the shutdown was particularly significant because more than 30,000 arrivals and departures remained scheduled for Friday when the ground stop began, according to flight-tracking app Flighty.

Those flights were scheduled across the U.S. aviation network, although the figure does not mean all 30,000 were grounded or delayed.

Flight-tracking service Flightradar24 reported that approximately 3,100 aircraft were already airborne and heading toward U.S. airports during the disruption. It said no additional aircraft were taking off at the time of its update.

Airports in Atlanta, Washington, Miami, Baltimore and Houston confirmed the nationwide departure restrictions and advised travelers to check directly with their airlines.

The FAA also warned of possible delays and ground stops at Los Angeles International Airport, Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport.

At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, a United Airlines employee advised passengers who lived nearby to return home, according to The New York Times.

Passengers who had already boarded aircraft were also being taken off planes, while travelers arriving at other airports encountered difficulties reaching their gates.

One passenger arriving at Los Angeles International Airport from Newark told CBS News that the aircraft could not taxi to a gate because another plane scheduled to depart was unable to move.

A traveler who landed in Austin reported that passengers had been instructed to remain aboard their aircraft, according to BBC live coverage.

United Airlines said flights already in the air would continue to their destinations, but new domestic departures would remain suspended while the FAA's order was in effect.

Friday's shutdown marked only the third nationwide ground stop in decades.

The FAA previously halted departures nationwide on September 11, 2001, following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, and again on January 11, 2023, when its aviation warning system malfunctioned.

The 2023 shutdown lasted approximately 90 minutes and disrupted thousands of flights. That incident involved the Notice to Air Missions system, which provides pilots with essential safety information before departure. Friday's outage instead involved communications affecting regional air traffic control centers.

The FAA had not identified the precise cause of the latest technical failure. The disruption comes as the federal government seeks additional funding to modernize the country's aging air traffic control infrastructure.

Congress approved $12.5 billion for upgrades in 2025, including replacing older communications equipment and improving airport radio systems.

On Friday, the White House and FAA requested another $30.1 billion from Congress for aviation modernization, according to Reuters.

The agency has not said whether aging infrastructure contributed to the communications failure. As of the latest updates reviewed, authorities had not announced when normal nationwide departures would resume.