All flights in the US grounded ‘due to extraordinary circumstances’

A nationwide ground stop has been ordered

The aviation body said in an alert: "DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND FOR REASONS OF SAFETY.

"ATTENTION ALL AIRCRAFT OPERATORS, BY ORDER OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION COMMAND CENTER ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED.

"ALL DEPARTING TRAFFIC SHOULD REMAIN GROUND STOPPED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

"INBOUND INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS WILL BE MANAGED ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS."

Nationwide ground stops are extremely rare and are only issued in emergencies.

The last one was issued in 2023, when a pilot notification system went down.

The only other time a nationwide groundstop was issued was during the 9/11 terror attacks.

John F. Kennedy International Airport. Image: Adobe Stock.

The FAA has confirmed the cause for the groundstop as being a "telecommunications outage".

In its latest update it said: "There has been a temporary telecommunications outage - out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted.

"Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis."

This echoes the statement by US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy who said in a statement: "The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.

"FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them."

Flightradar24 shows no takeoffs and US airports have jumped to the top of the site's airport disruption index.

Flights from the UK have already been affected, with a flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK already being cancelled. More are likely to follow.

Meanwhile, data from FlightAware says that around 7,000 flights have already been delayed or cancelled.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin issued an update as he said: "It's going to take some time. It isn't just going to be resolved and turned around within the hour. It's going to take some time. 

"But everyone is safe. The flights are accounted for. There should be no fear in the public." 

What is a groundstop?

A groundstop is an order issued by an aviation body which grounds all flights in a designated area.

It effectively stops all planes from taking off, while most planes already in the air can continue flying to their intended destination.

This is why on flight tracking sites things like relatively normal, because most flights are currently continuing their journey.

However, the knock-on effect will be severe with no planes allowed to take off from any airport in the US.

For a lucky few, the odd flight is being allowed to depart on a case-by-case basis. One Etihad flight from Boston to Abu Dhabi managed to take off despite the restriction.

This is a breaking news story. More to follow.