The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered an unprecedented nationwide ground stop on departing flights across the United States on Friday, citing extraordinary circumstances and safety concerns, as aviation authorities launched an investigation into an unspecified technical issue.
The emergency directive instructed all departing aircraft to remain on the ground until further notice, causing widespread disruption at airports and leaving passengers stranded aboard planes and inside terminals.
The FAA said the measure had been introduced “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” but did not immediately provide further details about the nature or extent of the problem.
“All departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice,” the agency stated, adding that inbound international flights would be handled individually.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that aviation specialists were investigating the disruption and promised to provide updates as more information became available.
“FAA technicians are investigating the issue,” Duffy said in an online statement. “We will provide immediate updates as we have them.”
Shortly before the nationwide order was issued, Chicago’s two major airports, O’Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport, had been placed under ground stop restrictions because of what was described as an equipment outage, according to NBC Chicago.
It was not immediately clear whether the equipment problems reported in Chicago were directly connected to the broader nationwide disruption.
Passengers across the country described confusion as flights preparing for departure were suddenly halted without detailed explanations.
Deveren Werne, 55, a consultant from Greenville, South Carolina, was aboard an American Airlines aircraft preparing to depart Indianapolis for Chicago when the crew informed passengers that flights had been grounded.
“At first the pilot announced that there was some kind of radio issue,” Werne told NBC News in a telephone interview.
“Then a little while later, the pilot said something like, ‘There is something going on that’s more serious than that,'” he added.
Werne, who frequently travels for work helping manufacturers and other businesses adopt artificial intelligence technology, said he had never experienced a disruption of this scale.
He described a mixture of emotions among passengers as they attempted to understand the situation.
Werne said he subsequently received messages from friends experiencing similar delays at other airports, including one passenger whose aircraft was stranded on a runway in Chicago.
“Right now our plane is heading back to the terminal so at least we’re going to be able to deplane,” he said.
At Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, air traffic controllers reported mounting congestion and difficulties accommodating aircraft as the restrictions continued.
According to communications monitored through LiveATC, personnel in the airport’s control tower described the situation as “a whole mess right now.”
Controllers were also heard warning that they were “running out of space” and experiencing “significant gate issues.”
One Newark controller expressed frustration over the lack of information, saying, “I’m as much in the dark as everyone else, I’m not getting any information from anybody.”
Nationwide ground stops are extremely rare in the United States, where the aviation system handles thousands of daily departures across a vast network of commercial airports.
The FAA had not announced when normal flight operations would resume or provided a definitive explanation for the disruption at the time of the initial reports.
Authorities said investigations were continuing, with further updates expected as aviation technicians worked to identify the problem and determine when flights could safely resume.