TravelSaturday, November 14
A nationwide FAA ground stop grounded flights at Sacramento International on Friday
The SACtoday team
If you were flying out of Sacramento International on Friday, you ran into a rare one. The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for all departures, citing a "communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers," as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy put it. Planes already in the air could still land, and Stockton's airport was affected too.
Sacramento's airport logged 109 delays and 13 cancellations by 2 p.m.
Source: Abridged
View as table
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Delayed flights | 109 |
| Canceled flights | 13 |
FlightAware counted those delays and cancellations at SMF as of 2 p.m. The FAA lifted the stop Friday night, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication "this was a nefarious attack against us. It's just a telecommunications outage." He couldn't rule out another outage. We suggest checking your flight's status before you leave for the airport.
$12.5 billionapproved by Congress last year to overhaul air traffic technology
The government has been working to overhaul the outdated technology that air traffic controllers rely on.
Source: NBC Bay Area
- Last nationwide ground stop: January 2023, a computer malfunction
- Airlines: not back to normal right away, planes and crews out of position
- Sacramento airport: check with your airline for delays
Sources: KQED, FOX40, The Stockton Record, Abridged, NBC Bay Area