Flights halted at airports across US due to air traffic control communications problems, FAA says

The Federal Aviation Administration halted flights nationwide on Friday afternoon after communications problems affected regional air traffic control centers. The FAA said the ground stop was imposed for safety reasons, while Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said technicians were investigating the issue. The nationwide halt is the first since January 2023, when an FAA computer system malfunctioned, and the first prompted by such circumstances since the September 11, 2001 attacks.