FAA issues nationwide ground stop for all US airports over communications failure

We continue to follow breaking news, the latest on the FAA ground stop at airports across the entire country. They say that this is due to, quote, extraordinary circumstances. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy saying that there are major communication issues at air traffic control centers across the nation. Now, this is the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned. Wasn't that long ago? Aviation Information expert Richard Levy once again joining us live to discuss. We discussed this ongoing issue, and I just want to ask right off the bat, Richard, how serious is this? Angie, hi there. Good afternoon. It's serious. Safety is not going to be jeopardized whatsoever. We have a nationwide ground stop for departures. That is, if you're ready to go and depart Washington or New York or Chicago for another city, the controls will say, shut down your engines, and we'll let you know when we have clearance for you to go. If you're coming internationally, it'll be handled on a one-to-one basis. Coming to land, most likely, of course you're going to be cleared to land. But this is serious because, as you mentioned, The very last time was 2023 when the notice to airmen issuance of the changes of frequencies and runways and navigation aids, that information was unavailable and then they fixed that. Of course, before that was the famous 9-11 experience when the airspace was shut down. Yeah, and you know, they pointed to communications issue as the one thing affecting all. All of the air route traffic control centers. So in simple terms, what could go wrong with communications? Oh, you've opened up a can of worms there, Angie, because the air route traffic control centers, I don't know, there's maybe 20 around the United States, big blocks of airspace from basically probably in the 15,000s up to, well, up to 39,000, 40,000 feet. And so they control en route traffic. Why are they not able to talk with each other? I've never heard of that. And so that is a big mystery. And this is not the local radar, the local control towers. This is en route airspace. It's called air route traffic control centers. We call them centers, Washington Center, New York Center, for example. So do they lose the ability to talk to each other, the air traffic controllers or the air traffic controllers to the pilots? No, now, full disclosure, Angie, your question is superior. I have not heard communication difficulties between the air traffic controllers and the pilots. What I'm hearing, what I'm sensing, without proof, full disclosure, is the communication between the air route traffic control centers with each other. If they were unable to talk to aircraft, that is major league serious, and I have not heard that or read that in any media reports. Well, I mean, I just have so many questions, just like everybody else out there. And you did mention the last two major ground stops. This does not happen. This is, you know, exceptionally rare when it happens. We had the 2023 one. That was an FAA systems malfunction. Then, of course, September 11th, 2001. So my question, with this happening, what, three years later, we're in 2026 now, is this— Perhaps the result of an aging system, one that we have continued to report on constantly. And we know that Secretary Duffy has been lobbying for more money to fix a very old and aging infrastructure when it comes to air traffic control in this country. There's no way I could say that's incorrect, Angie, whatsoever. I don't have the proof to say that, but I doubt it. I really doubt it. There's backups to communicate with each air traffic control center, telephone, and other methods. I'm wondering if there's something more serious going on that has blocked communication where they can't even use the plane, what we call This is called Landline. This is obviously... When one control area talks to another, most of it is done via computers, so there's not always communication. So what has blocked the entire airspace of the U.S.? That's the big question here. Has something happened? I don't sense at this point it's the aging system of the air traffic control. Well, if it's not an aging system, I mean, what are the possibilities of a cyber attack? We've heard about concerns about that. Could something out there... Be so powerful to take down an entire system like this. That could be very unlikely without facts or proof at this moment. But to shut down the entire system, somebody had to be very smart and know where to do a cyber attack that would affect the communication. But I am skeptical on why every air route traffic control center has been blocked and communicate with each other. There's something bigger going on, Angie. Yeah, I mean, that's what, just with your expertise, that's what I wanted, you know, to try to find out, like, what could this be? It's not isolated, right? This is every single one. When they start to use the word all, I mean, that's alarming. That's alarming. And so going forward, I know right now the FAA has not given any type of timetable as to when this nationwide ground stop is going to be lifted. Thank Any indication of what could happen next and how quickly they will be able to recover from this? As you know, what's priority number one? Safety. Okay, so we've got to get the airborne aircraft on the ground and they will be, they land, there's a picture of it right there on TV, but no departure. you. So there's gonna be tremendous delays and departures and eventually cancellations due to other various reasons, crew delay, flight planning problems, but it has nothing to do with the air traffic control problem here. So we're going to keep... The air traffic system is safe. That's priority number one. But get the communication back is what we need so we can get people on the way to where they're going. And I don't see right now an immediate fix to this in the next 10, 15 minutes. And I do find it very interesting. It has not been disclosed what caused this breakdown in communication yet by the FAA. Just from Secretary Duffy, the general. A conservative statement that we have at the ground stop. Well, just to put it in perspective as we start to wrap here, the one in 2023, that happened and it grounded flights for approximately two hours, and that contributed to more than 1,300 cancellations and more than 10,000 delays, and that was just within a two-hour window. So once again, we are waiting to hear from Secretary Duffy and also hear if they give us any type of timetable of when this will be lifted, but we do appreciate you taking your time to share your expertise with us and give us more insight into this breaking situation. Thank you. Thank you so much, Richard. Thank you, Angie. Bye-bye.