Air travel across the United States was thrown into widespread disruption on Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a nationwide suspension of flight departures until further notice, citing exceptional circumstances and safety concerns following a technical failure affecting air traffic control communications systems.

In a statement, the FAA said that flight operations would remain suspended until further notice, adding that international flights would be handled on a case-by-case basis, depending on safety requirements and airport capabilities.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the decision was prompted by a communications failure that affected air traffic control centers across the country. He added that technical teams were working to investigate the problem and assess the malfunction.

7,000 Flights Canceled or Delayed Across US Airports

The disruption quickly spread across the US aviation sector, with data from FlightAware, a flight-tracking platform, showing that approximately 7,000 flights had been delayed or canceled across various airports.

Meanwhile, Flightradar data showed that around 3,100 aircraft were already airborne and heading toward US airports amid the communications disruption, creating additional challenges for air traffic controllers as they coordinated aircraft movements and ensured safe landings.

FAA Suspends Domestic Departures as International Flights Face Case-by-Case Assessment

The FAA’s decision followed reports of radio frequency outages in parts of the country, before Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that the communications problem had affected air traffic control centers nationwide.

While domestic flight departures remained suspended pending technical assessments and the resolution of the outage, international flights were to be evaluated individually according to safety considerations and the operational capacity of receiving airports.

US media reports described the incident as the third time in history that air traffic operations had been halted nationwide, highlighting the exceptional scale of the disruption to the country’s aviation network.