FAA issues nationwide ground stop; what Waukesha County Airport is hearing

We're going to go out to Waukesha County to the airport there. And Brett Lemoine is live, and I understand you're with the airport director at Waukesha County. Yeah, that's right, Ashley and Kim, and even at a small municipal level here, this has had a huge ripple effect. There's still about a half dozen people here in the terminal that we're expecting to depart from the Waukesha County Airport this afternoon and are now stranded. I want to bring in Kurt Stanich, the airport director. Kurt, just kind of walk us through from a behind-the-scenes perspective, what took place at around 3 o'clock this afternoon? We got a notification that there was a full nationwide ground stop of all flights on a flight plan. So they were landing everybody safely and then anybody that was on the ground was not permitted to depart because of the issue. Wow. And what type of an impact did that have here at the Waukesha County Airport? Were there a number of flights that were ready to depart? We've had a few, yes, and as you can see, as I mentioned a minute ago, they're still here waiting. So there was some impact, and I know some of our charter companies have flight schedules later that they're not able to get out right now, but we're monitoring the situation. What about arrivals? What type of impact did it have for arrivals? Was there a situation where planes that weren't expecting to land in Waukesha came here? I believe we had a couple. I don't have any specifics on them, but we are available for people to land if they need to. Thank you very much. When it comes to this communication issue, is it specifically about the radar machines, or what is it exactly that is faulty at the moment? Well, we're hearing that there's multiple levels of air traffic control across the United States. There's towers like us, and there's bigger towers like Milwaukee, and then there's a center control that controls the airspace above all the other airspaces. We're hearing recently that it was an issue with a center controller, so there's a big one down in Chicago, there's one in Minneapolis, and they control a wide region. Something within their communication between the center control and the aircraft is what the problem actually is. Don't know exactly what that problem is yet, but it seems to affect the center controllers. When we're talking about this, I mean, from a layperson's standpoint, I mean, it sounds like a very intricate web, obviously, throughout the whole country. What happens when just one section of that web goes down? Well, if it's just one section, the nice thing about the redundancy of the air traffic control system is that other air traffic controllers can take on that traffic. Unfortunately, when it affects all of the centers across the United States, they have to get those airplanes to the lower control centers so that they can take care of the flights and get them on the ground. Is there any type of communication that's taking place right now between the FAA and airports like the Waukesha County Airport that indicate that this is going to continue on for hours, days? I've not received anything. I don't know what my brothers and sisters in the airport world are getting from the FAA, but we're monitoring it, and I'm in close contact with our air traffic control boss, seeing what he's hearing, and so far, nothing. Put us in the mindset of the pilots that were here. I understand that there was also like a... A pilot that was giving a flight school or something earlier today, just what kind of an impact does it have for individuals that, clearly, I mean, there were people we talked to that were going out of state, they have plans, but just the mentality of maybe being behind in the cockpit when this announcement goes on, what type of an impact does that have for a pilot? Well, if I put myself in the cockpit, I've been flying for a long time, I would think that if I received instructions that were important, I would safely land the airplane as soon as possible, following those instructions. And it does sound like the instructions that came through were not emergency. They're just like, hey, there's an issue. We're going to direct you to land at a certain area. We've also learned that some flights were able to continue to their destination and then land. So it wasn't any kind of threat or anything that was an emergency, like I've said. But as a pilot, you follow the instructions that you're given and your first responsibility is to fly the airplane safely and then navigate to where you need to go and then communicate what your next intention is. Just as a final kind of wrap-up, Kurt, put it in a historical context for us because we were talking earlier that there's only been two times, I think, since 9-11, including 9-11, that something like this has happened. Is that accurate, just based on your recollection? My recollection, and I did check in with my staff and said, hey, I think this is what it is. And it was a couple of years ago that there was this ground stop that affected a bigger portion of the United States, but nothing like this. Historic nonetheless, what's happening right now. Absolutely. Okay, Kurt Stanich, we appreciate it. Thank you so much for your insight and time. So, Kim and Ashley, as you just heard, I mean, yeah, there's a lot of uncertainty even at, you know, higher up levels here. But for the most part, as we look around in the terminal, people are being very patient to get back on their own private planes and take off. But, again, it's just kind of wait and see right now as to how long that may be. It's good to see that everyone is taking it in stride. Disappointed. You know, their weekend has now been changed, but everyone is calm, so that's the good news.