Travelers in the New York City metro area faced widespread cancellations and delays as the Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights nationwide on Friday.
The ground stop affected thousands of departures out of John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, and Newark Liberty International Airport, creating terminal chaos as departure boards shifted to read canceled or delayed, according to the New York Daily News reported.
LaGuardia was the hardest hit facility in the metro area, with flight delays ranging from two to four hours alongside numerous cancellations. JFK saw shorter delays generally lasting from a half hour to an hour, though departures to London remained largely unaffected and operated on time.
This reminds me exactly of what happened on 9/11. I was flying for @Delta from Atlanta to LaGuardia. It’s real. https://t.co/5anZFdzoo0
Newark reported arriving flight delays of approximately 43 minutes, while departing flights faced holds of an hour and a half that continued to increase.
“This FAA ground stop is crazy. My dad’s at JFK and his flight to London has been halted along with everyone else’s,” Sloan Ashton wrote on social media, adding that passengers received no further information at the terminal.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice stating the ground stop was imposed due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a communications issue affected the 22 regional air traffic control centers that direct planes en route between airports nationwide, and FAA technicians began investigating the failure.
A United Airlines pilot told passengers onboard a flight to Los Angeles that the communications outage originated in the Kansas City Center, which oversees airspace above the middle of the United States, before spreading nationwide.
“In a nationwide ground stop, FAA just released an advisory, and we are told that at this time the ground stop will last until 11 p.m. Eastern Time,” the pilot said, according to a Yahoo report.
The nationwide flight hold compounded travel disruptions that began on Thursday, when strong storms triggered a tornado warning in Queens and brought rain and high winds across the five boroughs.
“Yesterday I was at JFK for 8 hours waiting through six delays until the flight was finally cancelled and I had to stay an extra night,” Connor Boyack wrote on X. “I’m back at the airport now and… then this happened.”
A reporter for the New York Daily News whose LaGuardia flight to Fort Lauderdale was canceled overheard staff telling passengers to expect two-hour waits to reclaim checked bags from planes they never boarded.
“This weekend, it was going to be cold in Miami,” said Denise Frias, who planned to visit her grandmother and chose to order an Uber home rather than reschedule her canceled trip.
The blanket order grounding all departures across U.S. airports marks only the second time the Federal Aviation Administration has ordered a nationwide stoppage since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“This reminds me exactly of what happened on 9/11. I was flying for @Delta from Atlanta to LaGuardia,” former U.S. Air Force Pilot Buzz Patterson said on X. “It’s real.”
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