Rare nationwide ground stop ordered at airports over communication issues: FAA

And this is significant as well. This nationwide ground stop from the FAA due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety, they say. They said, "Attention all aircraft." This is the message that went out to planes across this country. Again, you're looking at live pictures. This is Logan Airport in Boston. You see the planes there on the runways, literally halted on the runway. Command center, all airports are being ground stopped, this is what the message was from the FAA, all departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice. And of course, we were told that this was because of a massive countrywide communications issue involving the FAA, though they have not given us much more on that. Let's get back to Sam Sweeney from our transportation team. Sam, what more have you been able to report out on the level of this communications issue and what drove them to announce this ground stop? David, we just got an update from the Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, who said this is a communication issue affecting the air route traffic control centers. An FAA air traffic control center, there are 22 of them across the country, and they handle all air traffic above 18,000 feet. So there is some sort of communication problem that is affecting those core centers all across this country. We don't know what it is, and we do not have an update. The secretary says that they are investigating, the FAA technicians are investigating the issue, and then they will provide an update when they have them. That is not good news for flyers on a Friday night who are trying to get home or get out of town. Yeah, that must be alarming for the pilots who are in the air right now, obviously, trying to navigate the confusion while in the air. These are pictures from LAX at this hour, again, a familiar scene. We've now seen Reagan, Boston's Logan, and now LAX here. You see the passenger planes lined up and halted. And Sam, just to clarify what you just told us, the transportation secretary telling ABC News and other reporters that this involves. traffic that's above 18,000 feet. There is a certain part of air traffic control, a communications system that's in place to handle the communications with all air traffic above 18,000 feet in this country. And that's a substantial amount of flights in the air that there is a problem with that communication center. Yeah, so when we think of air traffic control, we often think of the towers that are at the airport. That handles just the immediate traffic at an airport. But when you get above 18,000 feet, you start talking to what is known as a center. And that's where air traffic controllers are in what may look like an office building, talking to planes all across the country and as they enter airspace over the ocean. And these are major, major centers and operations facilities that handle this crucial traffic, telling planes where to go, how to avoid weather, what their direction of travel is going to be when they get to a certain point, and then getting them into the airspace of the airport when they're ready to land. And then they will transfer that plane over to a local controller who's closer to that airport. So a controller could be working in New York on Long Island, but they're controlling. Plane north of Boston and out in the Atlantic Ocean. They have entire regions that they help to communicate with. Moments ago, you were looking at pictures from Phoenix Airport as well. Phoenix Airport showing the planes halted on the runways. We're now back to Boston's Logan Airport where you can see the planes lined up there as well. This is mass confusion. Across this country and now gridlock that will have a ripple effect for many, many hours to come likely right into this weekend. This is a live look at the FlightAware map which shows every flight that's in the air right now. And Sam, this brings me back to a very simple question for people watching at home and quite And quite frankly, for me as well. When the Secretary of Transportation says there's an issue with air traffic control that deals with all flights above 18,000 feet, and you look at this FlightAware map and you see how many flights are in the air right now, has there been any clarity if they're having any issues communicating with the flights that are currently in the air? We don't have that yet. And my gut tells me that if that were an issue, they would be able to get those planes talking to other air traffic control facilities across the country. But by them saying that planes that are in the air right now are able to continue on to their destination tells me that there's probably some sort of communication issue that is preventing them from getting certain data that would be you know passed on to these planes that can maybe go through a back channel. We don't know exactly what the problem is, but if they were not able to talk to these planes, they would bring them down in altitude and have them land. That's not the case as of yet. All right, Sam Sweeney from our transportation team.