FAA halts U.S. plane takeoffs due to ‘extraordinary circumstances’

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop for all departing flights nationwide on Friday. According to the advisory, everything was stopped “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it was a communication issue impacting all air route traffic control centers. “There has been a temporary telecommunications outage - out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted.”

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the FAA said. “Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis.”Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication at this time the problem was anything other than an outage. The tower at Augusta Regional Airport said the order to pause departing planes was sent out around 3:50 p.

m.The abrupt move will have rippling effects for air travelers. At 5:35 p.m., there were 10,000 delays nationwide, and airports were at capacity with grounded f