US flights resume after nationwide ground stop lasting over four hours

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a nationwide ground stop on departing flights after a communications failure at air traffic control centres disrupted operations for more than four hours, marking the longest nationwide aviation shutdown since the 11th September 2001 attacks.

FlightRadar24 reported that more than 4,700 flights were cancelled and 10,000 delayed on Friday, while around 700 flights scheduled for Saturday had already been cancelled.

Aviation analysts said airlines could take several days to restore their schedules to normal.

The US Department of Homeland Security said there was no evidence that the outage resulted from a cyberattack or was connected to the separate disruption affecting Microsoft systems.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said there was no evidence of a cyberattack linked to the nationwide suspension of departures and stressed that there was no danger to the public.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the disruption to ageing legacy equipment in the country’s air traffic control system.