{"id":4433,"date":"2026-11-14T18:03:46","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T13:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4433"},"modified":"2026-11-14T18:03:46","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T13:03:46","slug":"us-air-travel-resumption-will-take-time-after-hours-long-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4433","title":{"rendered":"US air travel resumption will ‘take time’ after hours-long stop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Flights in the United States were resuming on Saturday after being grounded for several hours due to a major communications outage, though authorities said returning to normal operations would take time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The nationwide stop on Friday sparked widespread chaos and left hundreds of thousands of passengers in limbo, with some pulled off planes moments before departure by airline staff who appeared in the dark about unfolding events.<\/p>\n

The incident marked only the second time such an alert had been issued in US airspace \u2014 which is among the busiest in the world \u2014 since the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n

The ground stop lasted around four hours and was lifted at 8:15 pm Eastern Time (0115 GMT Saturday).<\/p>\n

Federal Aviation Administration officials reopened the airspace on Friday night \u201cafter restoring full functionality\u201d at air traffic control facilities, according to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will take us time (to) resume normal operations\u2026 Our top priority is the safety of you and your family when you fly,\u201d Duffy said.<\/p>\n

Administration officials blamed the incident on telecommunications issues with decades-old equipment, adding there was no evidence of foul play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a legacy system problem,\u201d Duffy said. \u201cWe have old, old switches, old routers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use 1980s little copper lines. It\u2019s an old system that went down, and went down everywhere. It got overloaded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duffy had formally asked Congress on Thursday for $30.1 billion in funds to upgrade and modernise the air traffic control System.<\/p>\n

As the ground stop was lifted, he repeated his plea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to say it a million times: Congress has to give the resources to the president so he can finish this bill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/a>6,000 flights cancelled<\/h3>\n

There were almost 6,000 flights cancelled, including some international routes, according to FlightAware, a tracking platform.<\/p>\n

Footage from airports around the country showed gates full, with planes waiting on taxiways.<\/p>\n

Passengers thronged concourses, desperate for information about an outage that had thrown their plans into chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to debate whether or not we need to reschedule or drive or what, but if the whole country is stopped, that means the highways are going to be jammed too,\u201d said Joseph Anderson, 72, who was trying to fly from Las Vegas to Oakland, California.<\/p>\n

A nationwide ground stop is highly unusual.<\/p>\n

There was one such stop in January 2023 when a pilot notification system failed, but the only other national stop happened in the wake of the 9\/11 attacks in September 2001, when no aircraft took to the skies for days.<\/p>\n

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stressed there was no evidence of any hostile action on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen zero evidence that this was a cyberattack or (AI) attack,\u201d he told a news conference.<\/p>\n

He also ruled out any connection with the outage that affected Microsoft this week, knocking email systems offline for millions of users, public services and businesses worldwide.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Confusion and delays<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The stop caused misery at airports around the country.<\/p>\n

At New York\u2019s LaGuardia Airport, Tiara Johnson said she had been trying to get to Orlando for a concert with a friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just keep delaying it\u2026 So it started out at 7:55. Then it went to 8:30, 9:30. Now it\u2019s at 10:30. So we don\u2019t know when it\u2019s gonna leave,\u201d she told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very frustrated because you know, you come to the airport and then all of a sudden your whole plans have changed, and you don\u2019t know when you\u2019re leaving. We\u2019re kind of stuck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some travellers said they had been told their flight was delayed because of wind, while others were left to gather what information they could.<\/p>\n

Boards at the airport continued to show departures leaving as normal, while mobile boarding passes held by those stuck on the ground appeared to show their flight was underway.<\/p>\n

Stranded passengers were scrambling to find alternatives, with long lines forming at rental car counters at the airport in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Susan Sardina said she had boarded her flight back to Orange County, California, when staff told passengers there was a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were already on our flight to leave, and we were told to get off,\u201d she told AFP as she stood in a lengthy queue for a rental car.<\/p>\n

For those looking on the bright side, the delay was a chance to extend a break.<\/p>\n

Kathy Sommers was on her way home from visiting friends in Las Vegas when her flight got cancelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re blessed that our friends are coming back to pick us up,\u201d she said. \u201cSo one more night to play cards.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flights in the United States were resuming on Saturday after being grounded for several hours due to a major communications outage, though authorities said returning to normal operations would take time. The nationwide stop on Friday sparked widespread chaos and left hundreds of thousands of passengers in limbo, with some pulled off planes moments before departure by airline staff who appeared in the dark about unfolding events. The incident marked only the second time such an alert had been issued in US airspace \u2014 which is among the busiest in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}