FAA employee explains possible cause of nationwide ground stop on flights: ‘Wouldn’t rule out cyberattack’

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a nationwide ground stop on all departing flights on Friday, citing “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” While the agency has not publicly explained the cause.The FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop on all departing flights on Friday. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)But Washington Examiner journalist Anna Giaritelli shared a post about the outage, quoting an FAA employee who said the problem appeared to be serious because it was affecting a large part of the country.What the FAA employee saidAn FAA employee has shared their view on the nationwide ground stop, according to a post by Washington Examiner journalist Anna Giaritelli on X. “Being that it is affecting a lot of the country id say it’s a major issue with AI type implications,” the employee told her.As per Giaritelli, Bryan Bedford and Sean Duffy have been talking up a new AI system all week, which controllers say makes no impact on their work.The employee also said, “I wouldn’t rule out a cyber attack though.”Also follow: FAA ground stop LIVE updatesWhat the FAA told air traffic controllersAccording to the Washington Examiner, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who does not oversee the FAA, said the ground stop is due to telecom issues.As per Giaritelli's post, this matches what the FAA told air traffic controllers. It says it got notifications sent to controllers, which gave the cause as rolling frequency outages in multiple centers. Another FAA message to controllers blamed “widespread frequency outages."The FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) is a nationwide, secure network that connects FAA facilities and supports daily air traffic operations across the US National Airspace System.Also read: US flights grounded nationwide: A look back at the last major FAA shutdown in 2023What we know about the ground stopThe FAA on Friday ordered a nationwide ground stop on all departing flights “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” according to NBC News. The alert said “all departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice.” The FAA also said, “Inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis.”“FAA technicians are investigating the issue,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an online post. “We will provide immediate updates as we have them.”Shortly before the alert, both of Chicago’s major airports, O’Hare and Midway, were listed on a ground stop alert due to an “equipment outage,” as per NBC Chicago.