Technical failure grounds U.S. flights — over 2,000 canceled and thousands stranded

A widespread technical failure forced a temporary nationwide grounding of flights in the United States, leaving more than 2,000 flights canceled, hundreds diverted and tens of thousands of passengers stuck at airports across the country.

Passengers described confusion and rushed decisions. "Because the whole situation became fairly uncertain and stressful, we decided to cancel the trip entirely, including the connecting flight, because we would have missed it anyway. That flight was supposed to be tonight at 9 p.m., and now, given the circumstances, we have no idea when we'll actually get there," said Lailani Hampton, a passenger.

Another traveler, Bobby Nguyen, said the disruption had immediate practical consequences: "So now we have to call the hotel we booked in Vegas, and there's the return flight with Alaska. Honestly, too many things piled up, especially with all this happening with the FAA and air traffic control. It's really bad, but it is what it is," he said.

Cause and official response

The Department of Homeland Security said there were no indications of a cyberattack and excluded any link to Microsoft. Officials in Washington blamed the outage on incompatibilities after new technology was added to the national air-traffic control network, which overloaded aging systems and produced communication gaps and radar blind spots.

At the time of the incident, there were roughly 3,500 aircraft airborne over the United States, U.S. Transportation Secretary Shon Dafi said. He used the episode to press for a major modernization program and requested $50 billion for new equipment and upgrades.

"Let's finish this job. New equipment, new software, new telecommunications. Many of our towers are nearly 100 years old. Our air traffic controllers have roofs that leak and air conditioners that don't work. They are located high up. Elevators don't work. Their roofs leak. I want new towers," Dafi said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed the flight ban, which lasted about four hours, and said air traffic would be restored gradually. Authorities warned that travel disruption would likely ripple into the coming days. This was the first national grounding of flights since January 2023, when a fault in a key FAA computer system forced a similar pause; a temporary nationwide grounding was first used after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Photo: press material from the event