On Friday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a nationwide ground stop that halted all departing flights across the United States, affecting travelers at Dallas‑Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and other local airports. The stop was ordered “due to extraordinary circumstances and for safety reasons,” according to an FAA notice cited by WBAP.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy explained that a communications issue impacted the regional Air Route Traffic Control Centers, causing instability in radar and data links. He noted that “our routers actually got overloaded with data and … they started to give us inconsistency in the data from those routers,” leading the FAA to shut down the system temporarily. CBS News reported that the issue stemmed from an outdated air‑traffic‑control communications network that rebooted, causing a crash and outage.
The ground stop began around 3:36 p.m. Eastern Time, as Duffy told reporters, and remained in effect for more than four hours. The FAA lifted the restriction at 8:15 p.m. ET, allowing flights to resume. CBS News confirmed that after the lift, operations began returning to normal at affected airports, though passengers were urged to verify their flight status with airlines.
Dallas residents experienced significant delays and cancellations as the nationwide halt grounded departures and limited arrivals. While specific delay and cancellation counts for DFW were not released, CBS News noted that Philadelphia International Airport logged 208 delays and 229 cancellations by 11:45 p.m. Friday, illustrating the broader impact of the outage.
Federal officials emphasized that the outage was not the result of a cyberattack. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters there was “no indication” of a malicious act and clarified that there was “no connection between this and Microsoft.” The FAA continues to investigate the communications failure, and technicians remain on site to ensure system stability.
Travelers in the Dallas area are advised to monitor airline updates and check flight status before heading to the airport. The FAA has not announced a specific timeline for any further system upgrades, but officials indicated that addressing the outdated technology and router capacity will be a priority to prevent future nationwide disruptions.
Sources: wbap.com, cbsnews.com, cbsnews.com
