FAA Ground Stop Issued Due to ‘Extraordinary Circumstances’ - SecurityWeek

According to Sean Duffy, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, the issue stems from a communication problem impacting 'all Air Route Traffic Control Centers' nationwide. The FAA directed departing flights to remain on the ground until further notice and said it would handle inbound international flights case by case.

Cause Remains Unclear

The cause of the air traffic control communications disruption remains unclear. Federal officials have yet to publicly identify what triggered the problem, and it is unclear if the incident is linked to a cyberattack. The agency had already halted traffic in Chicago over air traffic control communications problems before issuing the nationwide order.

US officials found no evidence of hacking in the FAA outage that halted flights nationwide, as the FBI reportedly probes an update as a potential cause of the communication failure.