FAA Issues ‘Mysterious’ Order to Ground Air Traffic Over ‘National Security Threat’

Air traffic was grounded Monday in parts of the U.S. west coast and Hawaii, but explanations are vague, leading the website The Drive to call the incident a “Mysterious Air Traffic Halt” that “Leaves More Questions Than Answers.”

The facts of the matter are clear: At about 5:30 p.m. Eastern time Monday, what’s known as a ground stop was issued that stopped planes from taking off and had air traffic controllers calling for airborne plans to land. The ground stop lasted for five to 10 minutes.

Things start getting murky quickly, however.

A spokesman for the San Diego International Airport told CNN the airport “was instructed by Air Traffic Control that there was a national ground stop but shortly after our operations team was told it was lifted.”

Despite multiple other instances of pilots and air controllers in Arizona, California and Hawaii using the phrase “national ground stop,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command says it did not order a national grounding of planes, according to The Drive.

Further, a recording shows air traffic controllers at Burbank, California, telling one plane,  “I need you to go ahead and land at Van Nuys at this time, some sort of national security threat is going on.”