US flights grounded LIVE updates: Some international flights depart after FAA issues ground directive citing ‘extraordinary circumstances’, Homeland Security secretary denies cyberattack, Microsoft outage connection

Earlier this morning, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a rare nationwide ground stop in the US due to “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety”.

What caused it?

Telecommunication problems

All Trump administration agencies are citing a telecommunications problem as the reason for halting all departing flights.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the FAA issued the nationwide ground stop “following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centres”.

“FAA technicians are investigating the issue,” he says.

Not terror or a cyberattack

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin stressed there was no foul involved in the ground stop and explicitly said it was not a terrorist attack. “This isn’t another 9/11,” he says.

He, too, blames a telecommunications outage but adds that Trump administration officials do not have a conclusive cause.

Microsoft outage

Mullin also says there is no connection between the nationwide ground stop and the Microsoft outage, which also triggered massive global disruptions yesterday, according to The Washington Post.

The new AI tool

The communications error arrived days after the FAA announced it would begin rolling out an AI toll across the US to help controllers avoid delays, The New York Times reports.

According to that report, the AI tool was initially unveiled in Washington, DC airports two months ago on the same day air traffic communications failures also grounded hundreds of flights.

The incident occurred after a circuit failed when contractors accidentally ripped through a back-up fibre line.

But Mullin also says nothing could be ruled out at this point.