FAA lifts nationwide ground stop following historic halt on all air travel

The Federal Aviation Administration has lifted a nationwide ground stop on all flights Friday evening following an hourslong halt on air travel that left millions of airline passengers stranded.The ground stop was lifted shortly after 8 p.m. EST, before Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stepped out to brief reporters inside the White House press briefing room around 8:30 p.m. local time, according to two DHS and FAA sources who spoke with the Washington Examiner. The FAA updated its website shortly before Duffy and Mullin spoke. Recommended Stories The FAA halted all flight departures nationwide Friday afternoon due to a “rolling frequency outage” affecting facilities that monitor planes in the air. Mullin told reporters during a press briefing earlier in the day that a telecommunications issue was to blame for the disruption, which prompted air traffic controllers to lose contact with aircraft in certain regions of the country.