FAA Ground Stop Delays Thousands of Flights

The FAA ordered a rare nationwide ground stop Friday after communication problems affected multiple air-traffic-control centers, delaying nearly 10,000 flights and prompting more than 1,500 cancellations. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin attributed the disruption to a telecommunications outage and said there was no indication of a malicious attack; officials were also examining whether it was connected to a new FAA AI system. Separately, the National Weather Service reported nationwide internet and communications problems that left some online forecasts and radar products unavailable or outdated, though local offices continued issuing alerts and forecasts. Authorities had not confirmed whether the FAA and NWS outages were related, and travelers were advised to check with airlines for updates.