The FAA, whose blocking order was relayed by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on his X account, said technicians were at work to determine the source of the problem.
The regulator added on X that there had been « a temporary telecommunications outage – as a precaution, all flights were suspended. »
« Each flight has been logged and international flights will be managed on a case-by-case basis, » he clarified. This suspension decision is not due to a threat to the United States, the Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin later stated.
« This is not a new 9/11 », the minister told reporters at the White House, although he declined to rule out any possibility, including a cyberattack.
« There is no indication at this time that this is a malicious attack against us. It is simply a telecommunications outage at the moment », he asserted.
A Southwest Airlines employee at the baggage checkpoint in Las Vegas (Nevada) told passengers that no flight would depart for 24 hours, according to an AFP journalist.
But there was some confusion as the display boards showed departures proceeding as scheduled, while passengers could not board.
« We cannot retrieve our bags, so we are kind of stuck », said to AFP Joseph Anderson, a 72-year-old retiree who was due to travel to Oakland (California).
Stuck at a layover?
At San Francisco airport, already disrupted by a storm, Lizzy, a septuagenarian, looks at the departure board and makes the sign of the cross several times.
« I am going to Amman, Jordan, and I fear I will be stuck at my layover in London », she tells AFP.
American Airlines noted that the regulator had « temporarily suspended departures nationwide », adding that planes already in the air could « continue to their destinations ».
She anticipates disruptions to her schedule « for the rest of the day, depending on the duration » of the suspension.
This suspension of flights comes on the very day the White House asked Congress for an additional $30.1 billion in funding to modernize the United States’ air traffic control system.
The Trump administration had already presented in May 2025 a plan for a “complete modernization” of the ATC system, some equipment dating from the 1960s or still using floppy disks.
Two telecommunications outages had affected Newark flights in spring 2025 due to a telecom cut at the control center handling arriving traffic, located in Philadelphia, about 160 kilometers to the south.
And in September 2026, hundreds of flights were canceled on the East Coast because of the accidental rupture of a telecommunications line.
The problems of air traffic in the United States are not new, both in terms of infrastructure and the shortage of staff, amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic.
