FAA Halts Every Flight Nationwide

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted all flights on Friday due to an unspecified communications issue that affected multiple Air Traffic Control Centers.

The Details: The FAA announced via X, "There has been a temporary telecommunications outage - out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted. Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis."

The halt reportedly grounded hundreds of flights before their departures, and passengers said arriving flights were delayed from moving to their gates. Flights already in the air were allowed to continue.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said FAA technicians are investigating the issue, which Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said was unrelated to the global Microsoft outage that began earlier in the day. No timeline was established.

How The Media Covered It: Coverage was similar across the political spectrum, with outlets on both the left and right criticizing the FAA's lack of transparency, as well as the unknown cause and extent of the issue. CNN (Lean Left bias), for example, reported, "Some 'people appear to be unaware,'" and Just the News (Lean Right) stated, "The FAA confirmed the order… but did not give further details on the 'extraordinary circumstance.'" CNBC (Lean Left) noted, "Disruptions tend to snowball." BBC (Center) specifically outlined "What we know" and "What we don't know" in its live coverage.

For Context: CNBC highlighted, "Nationwide ground stops are extremely rare. In January 2023, the FAA halted flights because of issues with a pilot alert system. Before that, traffic was halted nationwide after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks." Just the News and CNN included this context as well, and BBC further reported, "Mullin sought to reassure the public, saying repeatedly that this isn't 'another 9/11.'"

Outlets across the political spectrum have continually reported on the decline of air traffic controllers that's coincided with an increase in flights. The FAA hired over 2,000 video gamers to serve as air traffic controllers in August as part of the Transportation Department's (DOT) hiring campaign launched in April. Duffy then announced that the department met 94% of its hiring goal (however, the FAA reduced its staffing target from 14,633 to 12,563 in May).

The FAA launched Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories (SMART) technology in September for a 90-day trial in Washington, DC, to "analyz[e] airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, airspace conditions, and operational constraints to predict traffic flows and identify potential conflicts before they occur." It expanded the use of the tool – part of a 12-year, $875 million contract – on Tuesday.

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