FAA grounds departures nationwide until further notice

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop for departing flights Friday afternoon, directing airports to keep those flights on the ground until further notice.

The agency said it acted "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety." An FAA advisory said "all airports are ground stopped."

The order applies to departures. A ground stop keeps flights at their origin, while the FAA said incoming international flights would be handled individually.

It is the second such nationwide ground stop ordered since Sept. 11, 2001, ABC News reported.

The circumstances behind the order were not known, nor was the number of flights and passengers affected.

The Washington Examiner reported that a "rolling frequency outage" at facilities monitoring airborne planes prompted the FAA to halt departures. The Examiner said two FAA employees alerted it shortly after the order took effect and that it saw documentation confirming the halt. Inquisitr could not independently verify the report.

The FAA advisory gives no cause involving communication problems, Oklahoma City station News9 said.

Some airports had already experienced disruptions before the national order. The FAA's airport status website attributed ground stops at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport to equipment outages, the station said. The website also attributed delays at San Francisco International Airport and New York's LaGuardia Airport to weather. News9 said any connection between the earlier stops and the nationwide order was unclear.

News9 said the advisory gives Friday at 10 p.m. Central Time as the ground stop's scheduled end. But because departures must remain grounded "until further notice," the station said flights could resume before 10 p.m. or restrictions might last longer, depending on conditions.