All US flights grounded by authorities for ‘reasons of safety’

All departing US flights have been grounded after the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) issued a nationwide order on Friday, citing “extraordinary ​circumstance and reasons of safety".

Shortly before the announcement, ‌the ‌FAA ​halted traffic in Chicago due to air traffic control communications issues. ⁠The agency said: “All ​departing traffic should remain ​groundstopped until further notice.” The FAA said international ‌flights will be managed on ​a case-by-case basis.

FAA advised all airborne flights to circle instead of landing during the communications outage. It told pilots to circle along a predetermined routes instead of landing due to “equipment outages”.

US transportation secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the incident, saying in a statement that the stoppage was due to “a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers”. He added: “FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.”

Friday was the second nationwide ground stop of all departures since the September 11th 2001, attacks. The other happened in January 2023, when the FAA paused all domestic departures for less than two ‌hours.

According to the tracking website Flight Radar 24, there are currently “3,100 airborne aircraft bound for US airports” amid the nationwide ground stop.

This is a breaking story and will be updated. -Reuters/Guardian