FAA halts all departing US flights over communications issue
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the problem hit the 22 regional air traffic control centres that guide aircraft between airports nationwide.
The US Federal Aviation Administration ordered every departing flight in the country grounded on Friday afternoon, issuing a national ground stop that it attributed to "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety".
The agency's notice linked the stop to communications problems at regional air traffic control centres, the South China Morning Post reported. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the communications issue affected the 22 regional centres that direct aircraft en route between airports across the country, according to the paper.
France 24 described the order as a national ground stop imposed over an air traffic control "communication issue". DW reported that the FAA had issued a national ground stop covering all flights, and Reuters reported the halt was ordered for safety reasons without giving a cause in its headline.
None of the reports said what caused the communications problem, how long the stop would last, or how many flights and passengers were affected.
The FAA is the US agency that regulates civil aviation and runs the country's air traffic system. Its regional centres take over aircraft once they leave the airspace around an individual airport, guiding them along routes between cities. The FAA notice cited communications problems at those facilities.
Sean Duffy is the US transportation secretary, the cabinet post that oversees aviation policy. In the accounts published on Friday, he gave no timeline for restoring normal operations and did not say whether the fault had been found.
The order covered departing flights. The reports did not say whether aircraft already in the air were affected, or whether flights arriving from abroad were being allowed to land.
The ground stop was issued on a Friday afternoon in the United States. Reuters filed its report at 21:35 GMT.
How the reports differ
The South China Morning Post was alone in naming Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and in reporting his figure of 22 regional air traffic control centres affected, details the other outlets did not carry. Reuters and DW led on the FAA's own wording about "extraordinary circumstances" and safety and gave no cause in their headlines, while Al Jazeera and France 24 put the "communication issue" at air traffic control into their headlines as the explanation. France 24 and DW described the measure as a national ground stop; Al Jazeera framed it as the country's flights being grounded.
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