LIVE UPDATES: Infrastructure update led to nationwide ground stop

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all U.S. flights Friday due to a communications issue affecting regional air traffic control centers.

Passengers nationwide were left stranded for hours, including at Pittsburgh International Airport. The ground stop lifted by 8:40 p.m.

On Saturday morning, thousands of flights were either delayed or cancelled as ripple effects of the ground stop continued.

Passengers were urged to check in with their airlines for their flight status before going to the airport. Officials later said that travel should recover before the weekend is over.

Here’s the latest information:

UPDATE 11:55 a.m. Saturday

In a media briefing, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy explained what led up to the system overload that caused the communication and radar gaps. He explained that work to replace an old copper wire with new fiber wire is to blame.

Duffy said this type of work has been going on in America for decades. The department is now working to determine if “incompetence” or the installation of a faulty router was the core of the issue.

UPDATE 11:30 a.m. Saturday

The FAA Administrator, Bryan Bedford, said during a media briefing on Saturday morning that the US air travel schedule should fully recover by Sunday.

Bedford remarked that there will still be flight delays and cancellations, but the “worst is behind us.”

UPDATE 11 a.m. Saturday

Watch Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s air travel update below:

UPDATE 10:10 a.m. Saturday

Ongoing impacts to air travel have led the NFL to adjust officiating assignments for multiple games, including the Steelers-Bengals game in Cincinnati, per ESPN insider Adam Schefter.

Officials were reassigned to games that are within driving distance of their hometowns. The change necessitates bringing in three backup referees who will work the following games:

• Carolina-New Orleans – Duane Heydt
• Jacksonville-Tennessee – Barry Anderson
• Miami-Indianapolis and Pittsburgh-Cincinnati – Don Willard

The Colts game is set to start at 1 p.m. The Steelers-Bengals game in Cincinnati is at 8:20 p.m. It’s about a two-hour drive between the two cities.

UPDATE 10 a.m. Saturday

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on social media that operations are “slowly returning to normal.”

He warns that travelers will continue to see delays and cancellations as airlines reschedule flights and reposition crews.

UPDATE 8:20 a.m. Saturday

According to FlightAware, a website that tracks flight disruptions, over 3,500 flights have been cancelled as of Saturday morning. At least 1,500 more flights were delayed.

UPDATE 5:30 a.m. Saturday

The groundstop may be lifted, but its impact is still being felt at Pittsburgh International Airport on Saturday morning.

Dozens of flights to destinations across the country are cancelled. A few others are expected to face delays.

Airport officials are urging passengers who have flights scheduled today to check their flight status before traveling to the airport, because of the anticipated delays.

UPDATE 11 p.m.

Passengers at Pittsburgh International Airport took the FAA’s nationwide ground stop in stride Friday.

Early in the evening, a number of passengers told Channel 11 they were done waiting and were heading home.

Others stuck it out as long as possible.

“Unfortunately, I was going to a funeral tomorrow in Ft. Meyers. I don’t know if that’s going to happen,” Diane Yamamoto said.

“I’m a little nervous. My flight is tomorrow morning. I’m wondering if delays are going to pile up tomorrow. How many nights in Pittsburgh am I going to be?” Darin Carter said. He’s scheduled to fly home to Sacramento.

When he spoke to Channel 11, he already had a hotel room booked for the night. Not everyone was so lucky.

There were no vacancies at the airport’s Hyatt Regency.

The ground stop was lifted around 8:30 in the evening.

“They just lifted the ground stop. We already rebooked to fly out to Phoenix, and now they will not rebook us to go. So, we have to come back tomorrow,” Tim Nutter said.

Airport officials are cautioning passengers to check their flight status for delays and even cancellations.

Lucas Keuhnel is a grad student in town for a conference. He was supposed to fly to St. Louis Friday. He’s already had to rebook for Saturday afternoon.

“At least there’s some hope, so we’ll see. Hope can only take you so far. I need the plane to take me the rest of the way,” he said.

At one point, airport officials told Channel 11 they had 30 aircraft on the ground and five flights diverted.

UPDATE 9:51 p.m.

Tracking website FlightAware listed 8,553 delayed and 6,828 canceled flights in or out of the United States as of 9:52 p.m.

UPDATE 9:08 p.m.

Hyatt.com shows the Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh International Airport has no availability.

UPDATE 9:04 p.m.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said a data overload of the air traffic control system caused the communications issues, and called for emergency funding to update the system.

UPDATE 8:54 p.m.

A Pittsburgh International Airport spokesperson confirms that flights have been cleared to take off. Passengers are still advised to check with their airlines due to a backlog.

UPDATE 8:51 p.m.

The ground stop was issued out of an abundance of caution, and the public was never in danger, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said during a press conference.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said the stop came after “instability” for radar and regional air traffic control centers.

The ground stop was ordered at 3:36 p.m. while there were about 3,500 planes in the air, Duffy said.

UPDATE 8:37 p.m.

The FAA has officially lifted the ground stop, NBC reports.

UPDATE 8:07 p.m.

The Associated Press reports that some international flights are being allowed to take off because they’re leaving U.S. airspace. The FAA had previously said international flights would be handled on a case-by-case basis.

UPDATE 8:05 p.m.

Tracking website FlightAware listed 9,535 delayed and 5,144 canceled flights in or out of the United States as of 8:05 p.m.

UPDATE 8:03 p.m.

The National Weather Service says there is no radar outage, and radar.weather.gov is operating normally.

UPDATE 7:13 p.m.

Pittsburgh International Airport says it’s continuing to monitor the ground stop.

Medical and military flights, as well as the airport’s TSA checkpoint, continue to operate.

“Our teams continue to coordinate with the FAA and our airline partners and will provide additional updates as information becomes available,” a statement from the airport reads.

Passengers are told to check with their airlines regarding their flight status.

UPDATE 7 p.m.

NBC News reports that more officials and multiple agencies have told them that there is currently no evidence of a cyberattack.

UPDATE 6:55 p.m.

Microsoft has come forward to say that there is no indication that the FAA telecommunications disruption is connected to any of its services.

UPDATE 6:50 p.m.

NBC News reports that nationwide ground stops are extremely rare, noting this has only happened twice before.

The first instance was during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack.

The second instance was in Jan. 2023, when the FAA said there was a failure of the Notice to Air Missions system, which alerts pilots to a host of potential dangers.

UPDATE 6:38 p.m.

An Allegheny Health Network spokesperson told Channel 11 that the FAA’s nationwide ground stop will have “little to no impact” on Life Flight operations as long as weather conditions permit them to fly.

UPDATE 6:30 p.m.

Both United Airlines and American Airlines have shared updates on how they will operate amid the FAA’s nationwide ground stop.

Here is what they said:

UPDATE 6:22 p.m. Moe Haas, the executive director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority, said a plane landed at their airport amid the nationwide ground stop.

UPDATE 5:51 p.m. One of the people feeling the impact of the FAA ground stop is Channel 11’s Frederick Price.

Price said he was boarding a flight to take off from Milwaukeeat around 2:30 p.m.

“As soon as we were getting ready to take off, the pilot got on a loudspeaker and told us that we actually had to go back to the gate because there was some sort of issue with the communication, in fact, affecting all flights across the country,” Price recalled.

He said the airport is in a state of suspense.

“I’m looking around, people are just kind of confused. They want to understand what is going on,” Price said.

Price said United Airlines was temporarily offering bus vouchers to people who need to go to Chicago.

“Right now, everyone’s just kind of waiting to see what’s next,” Price said.

UPDATE 5:43 p.m. Channel 11’s Gabriella Deluca spoke with travelers who were at the Pittsburgh International Airport.

A lot of them were checking in with their airlines to learn what they are supposed to do next, as recommended by the Pittsburgh International Airport.

TSA checkpoints remain open at this time.

There were a few police officers outside of the terminal, but otherwise security appeared to be operating as normal.

One woman told Deluca she is more surprised than anything.

“I was a little bit nervous because it kind of just came out of nowhere and I was just wondering if we were going to make it on our flight tonight,” Maleah Grabiak said.

UPDATE 5:36 p.m. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters outside the White House:

“There was no indication as of yet this was a nefarious attack against us.”

UPDATE 5:31 p.m. The FAA said every flight in the United States has been accounted for at this time.

International flights are being handled on a case-by-case basis.

They stressed that the response to the telecommunications outage is happening out of “an abundance of caution.”

UPDATE 5:18 p.m.: The Pittsburgh International Airport has shared a statement regarding its operations at the time of the FAA system-wide outage.

Channel 11’s Gabriella Deluca is LIVE at the airport. Tune in to Channel 11 News at 5:30 p.m. for her update on the impact of the outage here in the Pittsburgh area.

UPDATE 4:43 p.m.: At this time, Pittsburgh International Airport is listing delays for at least 43 flights. Four flights have been canceled.

UPDATE 4:30 p.m.: US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said the ground stop is happening because of a “communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.”

Duffy added that technicians are investigating the issue.

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered a nationwide ground stop on all departing flights.

According to reports from NBC News, the FAA says the order is happening because of “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”

There are no further updates as to what those circumstances are.

Airports are asked to keep all flights grounded until further notice.

Channel 11 has reached out to the Pittsburgh International Airport for more information.

A Channel 11 crew is also heading to the airport. We will have LIVE reports from them on Channel 11 News at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

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