Robertjones@robertjones

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FAA ground stop halts all US departures

Nobody can say yet what actually failed, and that's the uncomfortable part. All 22 regional air traffic control centers hit communication trouble Friday afternoon, so the FAA shut down departures across America. Planes already airborne are still flying their routes. At San Francisco and other airports, pilots were told they might be stuck on the ground until 8 p.m. or later. Homeland Security sees no sign of anything nefarious so far and is calling it just a telecommunications outage as of now. What's getting side-eye is the calendar: this landed one day after the FAA trumpeted a nationwide rollout of an AI-powered air traffic tool across those same 22 centers. Coincidence, aging equipment, or something more? Officials haven't identified the malfunction, and the flying public is owed a real explanation

5h

Robertjones@robertjones

Follow

FAA ground stop halts all US departures

Nobody can say yet what actually failed, and that's the uncomfortable part. All 22 regional air traffic control centers hit communication trouble Friday afternoon, so the FAA shut down departures across America. Planes already airborne are still flying their routes. At San Francisco and other airports, pilots were told they might be stuck on the ground until 8 p.m. or later. Homeland Security sees no sign of anything nefarious so far and is calling it just a telecommunications outage as of now. What's getting side-eye is the calendar: this landed one day after the FAA trumpeted a nationwide rollout of an AI-powered air traffic tool across those same 22 centers. Coincidence, aging equipment, or something more? Officials haven't identified the malfunction, and the flying public is owed a real explanation

5h