PH
MANILA, Philippines — Confusion reigned at airports across the US on Friday as a rare grounding of all US flights stranded hundreds of thousands of frustrated travelers.
In New York’s busy LaGuardia airport, Janice Llewellyn was on the verge of tears: the chaos could mean she will miss her daughter’s wedding in Toronto.
The 61-year-old Llewellyn was desperate to find an alternative route. “I may lose my mind.”
“My husband flew all the way from England to get to the wedding,” she said. “Oh gosh! I wish they had another flight, I wish I could get another flight, like, now.”
At the airport in Las Vegas, some fliers were told their journeys were delayed due to wind.
One airline staffer said the ground stop would last eight hours. Another said 24 hours.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials eventually lifted the ground stop at 8:15 pm ET (0115 GMT Saturday).
“It will take us time (to) resume normal operations,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said, blaming the incident on telecommunications issues with decades-old equipment.
The communications failure at air traffic control centers caused chaos at US airports and triggered the longest shutdown since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
By 11:30 p.m., nearly 10,000 flights had been cancelled, including more than 2,200 each at Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, and 1,800 at United Airlines, according to Flightradar24. The plane-tracking website said some aircraft at major airports had waited more than five hours for a gate.
The four-hour nationwide grounding could disrupt airline schedules for days, aviation analysts said.
During the stop, the lack of information led many passengers to form long lines at rental car counters in a mad dash for travel alternatives.
Joseph Anderson said he was trying to get back to Oakland in California from Las Vegas and was considering driving – but said “if the whole country is stopped, that means the highways are going to be jammed too.”
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Date posted: 2026-11-15T00:00:00+08:00