Hundreds of Bay Area Flights Remain Disrupted After FAA Ground Stop
Federal officials say a nationwide ground stop that stopped and delayed hundreds of flights Friday in the Bay Area was caused by technological upgrades to the air traffic control system, which overloaded old parts of the infrastructure. Now, local airports and passengers are looking to get back on track after the rare occurrence.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told reporters at a press conference that the agency was installing new equipment and technology when it overwhelmed the system.
Mullin said there was no evidence a “nefarious attack” caused the five-hour stop.
San Francisco International, Oakland San Francisco Bay and San José Mineta International airports told KQED Saturday morning that while delays are continuing into the weekend, the situation has improved.
That’s the case for SFO, said Bob Rotiski, airport duty manager. The flight tracker FlightAware shows SFO saw over 500 cancellations and more than 400 delays on Friday.
“This will probably go into tomorrow,” Rotiski said. “There’ll be some disruption, but, overall the airlines had multiple aircraft that are out of place along with the flight crews, so that takes a little bit of time.”
San José Mineta International said, from the airport’s perspective, operations are “proceeding normally.”
As of 3:30 p.m., over 250 flights in and out of SFO had been canceled. More than 80 delays and over 30 cancellations had been issued so far at San José Mineta International.
After the FAA published its advisory shortly before 1 p.m. PST on Friday due to “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” most planes preparing to depart from airports in the Bay Area and nationwide were left immobile.
The advisory, scheduled to remain in place through 8 p.m. PST, said that all departing traffic would remain grounded “until further notice.”
Federal officials called off the stop before 5:30 p.m. PST, but cancellations at SFO still climbed to over 300 by 6:30 p.m. Travelers at SFO told KQED at the time of the stop that they were already considering alternate plans like staying at a hotel to wait out the disruption.
Traveler Reka Perry said she wasn’t notified of the ground stop by her airline, American Airlines. Instead, her dad texted her about it.
“There’s nothing I can do, so I’m just sitting here and trying to decide: Do I get a hotel room? Do I stay?” Perry said Friday evening.
Bay Area sports teams were also left to wait in some cases. The San José Sharks, on the way to Utah for a Saturday night match against the Mammoth, waited hours before the team was eventually cleared for liftoff. Bay Area News Group reports that the San José State University football team was also delayed for hours.
The stop was the longest since after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and only the third time since then that a nationwide ground stop has been called. In 2023, the FAA issued a stop due to a government contractor unintentionally deleting files, Reuters reports.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in an update on Saturday that a cyberattack or foreign interference were not believed to be the cause, but instead an FAA system “that didn’t meet the moment.”
Duffy specifically called out contractor L3Harris, which has been working to swap out old copper wire communication systems. He said on social media that the stop was issued “following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.”
“Did we have incompetence, meaning was it user error from L3Harris?” Duffy said Saturday. “Or did they install a faulty router?” The contractor didn’t address exact allegations in a statement to POLITICO, but said it was working with the FAA to “understand the conditions” that led to the stop.
The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security suggested on social media that officials were trying to “bury how this happened” from Democrats.
“You brought the nation’s skies to a standstill,” the committee wrote. “Preserve all documents and emails. Oversight is coming.”
The expansion of an artificial intelligence tool that’s been active in Washington, D.C. since last month and was announced to expand across the country days before the stop raised questions about the link between the AI and the grounded flights.
The tool’s creator Air Space Intelligence said on social media Friday that the “ground stop is not based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA and ATC (air traffic control).”
Passengers continue to be affected by the disruption despite federal officials having lifted the stop. Local airports say passengers should contact their airlines directly for information specific to individual flights.
Major airlines Delta, United and American issued statements saying that delays are expected and that passengers should monitor their flight status in their apps or on the airlines’ websites. If rescheduling their flights, the three airlines are offering eligible travelers a waiver on fees.
Mary Murphy, who was scheduled to fly out of SFO Friday, heard from a gate attendant that it’s “gonna be crazy” on Saturday.
“I’ll give it a chance on Sunday, but I think it’s going to be crazy the next several days,” Murphy told KQED.
If you have been impacted by the nationwide ground stop and want to know your consumer rights, read KQED’s guide on what to do next.
KQED’s Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman and Christopher Alam contributed to this report.