FAA ground stop strands flyers at SEA Airport

We begin with breaking news as the FAA orders a ground stop on all flights across the U.S. That includes, of course, SEA Airport. Well, according to data from FlightAware, nearly 7,000 flights are delayed or canceled nationwide. That includes hundreds of travelers at SEA Airport. That's where we find FOX 13 reporter Dan Griffin, who's been talking with passengers this afternoon. Dan, what's the latest? Thank you for joining us. Well, I can tell you it's certainly been an afternoon where a lot of people have been disappointed. They've been concerned. They've been confused. Let's take a look at the board behind me here. And you can see a lot of yellow and you can see a lot of red, too. Those are canceled flights here, flights that are not going to leave SeaTac tonight. And, you know, in talking with people here, they tell me that it has been a day where they've just been trying to figure out what is going on. Will they be able to take off? Will they be able to get where they're going? We've talked with people who are going to places like Honolulu. They were going They were going to Houston. They were going to Denver. And so they've been watching closely for information from the FAA that is just basically saying this is a telecommunications outage. We heard from DHS Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen today who said that this appeared to be nothing nefarious as far as they can tell, but simply that telecommunications outage. Still, people have a lot of concerns and take a listen to what they had to say. I had a flight that was supposed to leave around 2:30, and then it was delayed before I even got here. So then I switched to a later flight, which I thought would be on time, and it wasn't. You know, frankly, it is a little scary. But I have a feeling this is kind of the shades of things to come. A little disappointed. I mean, we were expecting it was my daughter-in-law's birthday and we're expecting to go to Honolulu for her birthday. And, you know, being that we can't go, I'm disappointed. Now we're keeping an eye on cancellations, delays and whatnot here at SEA Airport. And, you know, right now there's just a number. that are kind of sprinkled in there with a lot of, a number of cancellations that is, with a lot of those delays as well. One interesting thing that I want to mention is there was talk of potential flights being diverted, those that were still in the air, because flights right now are not able to take off from any of the airports here, domestically at least. And so there were a lot of concerns about whether or not flights would have to be diverted if there wasn't enough space. I talked with airport officials here at SEA. They say they do not see that being a problem here. And when it comes to people who have maybe checked back, bags. They say if you were planning to get on a flight and maybe you were beyond security, you just need to work with your airline to get your bag back. If you maybe have a family, friend or relative here who's trying to get somewhere tonight. So we'll continue following this. We'll keep you updated on what we're learning throughout the evening. But for now, we are live at Seattle Tacoma International Airport. Dan Griffin, Fox 13 News.