The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lifted a nationwide ground stop imposed on Friday that halted departing flights, an order it issued citing “extraordinary circumstances and reasons for safety”.
asserted
it → lift → safety
The halt, which grounded thousands of flights across the country, was lifted on Friday evening.
asserted
which → ground → evening
Recommended Stories
list of 3 items- list 1 of 3US flights resume after FAA lifts hours-long nationwide ground stop
- list 2 of 3FAA grounds all fights across the US over ‘telecommunication outage’
- list 3 of 3Former
asserted
FAA → resume → outage
FAA official says ‘nobody really knows what is going on’
asserted
what → say → ?
“Everybody’s safe,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said, adding that this was not “another 9/11”.
asserted
this → ’ → ?
Here is what we know:
asserted
we → know → what
What happened?
asserted
What → happen → ?
The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop at 3:54pm Eastern Time (20:54 GMT) on Friday due to a telecommunications outage affecting air route traffic control centres, which handle flights travelling across the country.
asserted
which → issue → country
The FAA confirmed that the nationwide ground stop had been lifted.
asserted
stop → confirm → ?
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said airspace reopened at 8:15pm ET (01:15 GMT on Saturday), after more than four hours of disruption.
“We’ve opened up the airspace,” Duffy said, warning that flights would not resume immediately.
asserted
flights → say → airspace
“It’s going to be slow,” he added, urging passengers to check with their airlines.
asserted
he → go → airlines
Duffy said flights would resume depending on the availability of pilots and flight attendants, with authorities trying to get as many flights moving as possible on Friday night.
asserted
flights → say → night
Aviation analytics firm Cirium said that after 4pm ET (21:00 GMT) on Friday, about 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers were still scheduled to depart from US airports.
asserted
flights → say → airports
By 7:05pm ET (00:05 GMT on Saturday), at least 827 flights had been diverted, according to Cirium.
uncertain
flights → divert → Cirium
Of those, 670 returned to their departure airports, while 157 were diverted elsewhere.
asserted
157 → return → airports
Aircraft already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations and land during the ground stop.
asserted
Aircraft → allow → stop
During the ground stop, international flights were handled on a case-by-case basis, with some allowed to depart despite the restrictions.
asserted
some → handle → restrictions
How many flights were affected?
asserted
flights → affect → ?
More than 4,700 flights were cancelled and 10,000 delayed on Friday, while another 700 had already been cancelled for Saturday, according to FlightRadar24.
uncertain
700 → cancel → FlightRadar24
Aviation analysts said it could take days for airlines to restore their schedules.
uncertain
airlines → say → schedules
Reporting from Los Angeles international airport, Al Jazeera’s John Hendren spoke to passenger Nicholas Erdodi, who travelled from New Zealand and was trying to reach Chicago for a conference.
asserted
who → report → conference
Erdodi said he had been travelling for 16 to 18 hours before spending another six hours at the airport, where passengers had been forced to leave their plane.
asserted
passengers → say → plane
“The challenge is you cannot ask anyone here what to do,” he told Al Jazeera.
asserted
he → ask → Jazeera
“Lack of information is what bothers me, I mean, and not to mention find the hotel for the night, not to mention all the cost.”
asserted
I → bother → night
Erdodi said he had been rebooked but remained uncertain whether his next flight would depart.
asserted
flight → say → ?
“I work in tech, I understand what could be going on, but someone needs to tell us,” he said.
uncertain
he → work → us
“It doesn’t matter if someone tells us that we don’t know what’s happening, but please just let us know what’s going on,” he added.
What does a nationwide ground stop mean?
asserted
stop → matter → What
A nationwide ground stop temporarily requires departing aircraft to remain on the ground until cleared to take off.
asserted
stop → require → ground
Flights in the air are generally allowed to continue to their destination, but new departures are on strict orders to stay grounded.
asserted
departures → allow → orders
The measure is intended to stop any further aircraft from entering the airspace as the authorities deal with the safety issues.
asserted
authorities → intend → issues
What caused the FAA nationwide ground stop?
asserted
What → cause → stop
The FAA said the ground stop was caused by a telecommunications outage affecting air traffic control systems.
asserted
stop → say → systems
Duffy said the outage was caused by switches and routers that became overloaded with data and went down, adding that the incident did not involve a total loss of communications or radar capabilities.
asserted
incident → say → capabilities
Todd Curtis, an aviation safety expert and chief executive of AirSafe.com, told Al Jazeera that the failures appeared to be concentrated in the country’s air route traffic control centres.
asserted
failures → tell → centres
“There are 21 across the United States, one in Alaska and the other 20 in the lower 48,” he said.
asserted
he → be → 48
“These are the folks who handle the aircraft that are transiting from one part of the country to the other, and they rely on multiple handoffs between controllers.”
asserted
they → handle → controllers
Speaking before Duffy provided further details, Ron Bartsch, a professor of international aviation law at the University of the South Pacific, raised questions about the apparent failure of backup systems.
asserted
Bartsch → speak → systems
“The whole aviation community is based on redundancy,” he told Al Jazeera.
asserted
he → base → Jazeera
“So the fact that a redundant system hasn’t kicked in immediately just raises more questions than what we’ve seen answers to at this stage.”
asserted
we → kick → stage
Mullin said that there was no cyberattack linked to the nationwide ground stop and that the public was never in danger.
asserted
public → say → danger
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
