FAA nationwide flight grounding linked to network update, system crash

A network update may have triggered the telecommunications failure that prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground departing flights nationwide on Friday, according to a new report, as authorities investigate one of the most significant disruptions to U.S. air travel in years

An update to the private communications network connecting America’s air traffic control system caused the infrastructure to reboot, after which the system crashed, CBS News reported, citing multiple sources familiar with the incident.

The network is operated by L3Harris Technologies (NYSE), according to CBS News. The report did not establish whether the company was responsible for the update or the subsequent failure.

L3Harris did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CBS News. The FAA has not publicly confirmed the reported sequence of events as the cause of the outage.

The latest information provides a possible explanation for the telecommunications failure that forced the FAA to halt departures across the United States on Friday afternoon, disrupting airline schedules and leaving passengers stranded at airports nationwide.

The outage affected communications at air traffic control facilities responsible for managing aircraft across U.S. airspace. Authorities have said there is no indication so far that the disruption resulted from a deliberate attack.

Flight-tracking service FlightAware reported more than 1,000 cancellations and nearly 10,000 delays as the disruption spread across the aviation network. International flights were also affected, including departures from Canada and Europe.

The nationwide ground stop threatens further flight delays and cancellations as aircraft and crews become displaced across airline networks. Even after restrictions are lifted, restoring normal schedules could take considerably longer.

The FAA initially said in a post on X that a temporary telecommunications outage had prompted it to halt departures as a precaution. The agency said every flight had been accounted for and that inbound international flights would be handled on a case-by-case basis.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the FAA had issued the ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communications issue affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.

FAA technicians were investigating the problem, he added.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the outage affected telecommunications throughout the FAA system and that flights had been grounded as a precaution.

"This was a telecommunications outage throughout FAA. Out of an abundance of caution, we have grounded all the flights," Mullin said. "There is no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack."

Mullin also said authorities had no reason to believe the incident represented a threat to the United States.

Aircraft already airborne were permitted to land, with officials managing their arrivals under safety procedures established during the disruption.

The FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center earlier issued an extraordinary advisory instructing aircraft operators to keep departing traffic grounded until further notice, citing safety concerns.

Inbound international flights were to be managed on a case-by-case basis.

Earlier advisories pointed to communications problems affecting multiple air traffic control facilities. One advisory cited equipment outages and communications issues, initially affecting a large group of departure facilities.

The nationwide order took effect at 20:54 UTC Friday, with the initial advisory extending into Saturday morning.

The FAA did not immediately provide details on the specific technical failure or when normal operations would resume.

The disruption comes amid longstanding concerns about the reliability of the country’s air traffic control infrastructure, including aging communications equipment and the need for modernization.

Congress approved $12.5 billion last year toward upgrading the system, including replacing aging copper wiring with fiber-optic connections and modernizing radio equipment.

Transportation officials have indicated that further funding will be needed to complete the overhaul.

Friday’s disruption was the first nationwide FAA ground stop since January 2023, when an outage of the agency’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system forced airlines to pause domestic departures for about 90 minutes.

The NOTAM system provides pilots with critical safety information, including runway closures and potential hazards along flight routes.

The January 2023 incident caused more than 1,300 flight cancellations and thousands of delays, raising questions about the resilience of the FAA’s technology infrastructure.

The only earlier nationwide shutdown of comparable scale followed the September 11, 2001, attacks, when the FAA ordered all aircraft to land and closed U.S. airspace to prevent further hijackings.

That shutdown was a security response rather than a technical outage.

Separately, the National Weather Service said Friday it was also experiencing internet and communications failures across the country that could prevent users from viewing products on its websites or cause outdated information to appear on its platforms.

Technical staff were working to resolve those problems as quickly as possible, the NWS said in a statement.

Authorities have not established a connection between the weather service’s communications problems and the FAA outage.

The disruption has placed renewed attention on the reliability of the infrastructure supporting U.S. aviation, particularly the telecommunications systems connecting air traffic controllers across the country.

The investigation into the reported network update and subsequent system failure could provide further clarity on what caused the nationwide grounding and whether additional safeguards are needed to prevent similar disruptions.

Louis Juricic and Simon Mugo contributed reporting to the article.