FAA ground stop: Which states have not been hit by the nationwide disruption affecting thousands of flights?

Amid a nationwide ground stop issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a small number of flights were taking off from a few states. The ground stop was issued for all airports across the United States and lasted more than four hours. Nearly 5,000 flights were canceled, according to ABC News. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement the ground stop was because of a "telecommunications outage", adding that there was no indication of a "nefarious attack."

Where are flights taking off?

In a statement, Alaska and Hawaiian airlines said that flights within Hawaii and from the West Coast to Hawaii could continue. International flights taking off from Hawaii were also cleared.


Hawaii's Department of Transportation said flights between Anchorage to Oakland and Hawaii could also go on. San Francisco International Airport said that Pacific-bound flights were cleared for departure, including to destinations in Alaska and Hawaii.

Ontario Airport in California said that flights heading west over the ocean were permitted to take off from that airport. And Boston Logan said in a social media post that FAA was allowing some transatlantic flights to depart.

Due to the ground stop, there were also thousands of flight delays, according to data from the website FlightAware. When the FAA issued the alert, 4,042 flights headed for destinations in the US were in the air, according to the online flight tracking service Flightradar24.

What is a ground stop?

A ground stop order by the FAA requires aircraft to remain grounded, barring them from taking off from airports. Planes that are already in the air are usually allowed to remain in the air.

The FAA has over 14,000 air traffic controllers who handle the more than 44,000 flights that take off from airports across the United States every day, according to the agency's data.

2nd nationwide ​ground stop

This marks only the second nationwide ​ground stop of all flight departures since the 9/11 terror attacks of 2001. The previous order came in January 2023, when the FAA ordered a halt on all ⁠domestic departures for less than two hours.

Secretary Mullin said Friday that President Donald Trump had been briefed about the incident.