BREAKING: Nationwide ground stop issued in U.S. for ALL AIRCRAFT in 'EXTRAORDINARILY UNUSUAL' move

SO LET ME SHARE THE NEWS. WE'RE ALL JUST HEARING THIS NOW AND THEN WE'LL. ASK YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS. THE BREAKING NEWS COMING THE FEDERAL. AVIATION ADMINISTRATION HAS DECLARED AN. EXTRAORDINARY GROUNDSTOP NATIONWIDE, CITING QUOTE EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND. QUOTE REASONS OF SAFETY. THE FAA HAS ORDERED ALL DEPARTING FLIGHTS TO. REMAIN ON THE GROUND UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. I WANT TO BRING IN MS NOW AVIATION ANALYST, FORMER NTSB INVESTIGATOR TOM HOWTER ON. THE PHONE FOR US.

I WANT TO. I'M LOOKING AT ALL THE AIRPORTS. THAT ARE GETTING GROUND STOP. NOTICES WHICH ARE CERTAINLY ALL. THE MAJOR ONES. BUT THEY'RE NOT PROVIDING, THEY ARE SAYING IT'S AN. EQUIPMENT OUT. But they're not providing any information. in terms of what's going on, how they're all interconnected. because these are Chicago, Boston, New York. It's going across the country. and it's hard to imagine they're.

all interconnected that much, but it's extraordinarily unusual. Tom, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the last time there was. a nationwide ground stop, was after 9-11? Well, 9-11, yes, was the ground stop. That was definitely for safety issues. And so it was felt that it was best to. put all the airplanes on the ground. until we knew what was going on. with the airplanes themselves. This seems to be an equipment issue. with the air traffic system,

which I don't understand. It's certainly widespread and doesn't make any. immediate sense to. me what's going on. There's almost no details available. A nation-wide groundstop is the news coming out. of the FAA. There was some reporting in the New York Times. Congresswoman. this week about the incredible strain. on our country's system. for keeping commercial flights safe in the air, all flights safe in the air.

Do you have any sense that anything. like this was even on the table? Let me just start by saying... I'm sorry, Tom. Let me bring the congressman in. Let me just say that something. like this is really THAT IS REALLY. SIGNIFICANT AND QUITE CONCERNING. BESIDES OVERSIGHT, I SIT ON THE AVIATION. SUBCOMMITTEE. OF THE CONGRESS AND SO I'M VERY. FAMILIAR WITH ISSUES ABOUT. THE FAA AND THIS IN GENERAL, AND THIS IS QUITE DISTURBING. AND PRETTY EXTRAORDINARY OF A ACTION TAKEN.

SO WHATEVER IT IS, I THINK DESERVES AS MUCH. TRANSPARENCY. AS POSSIBLE TO The ground appears to be, I'm not sure this is every flight, but certainly at major airports. is, you know, for it to be some sort of. technical. I DON'T WANT TO PRE-JUDGE WHAT'S GOING ON, BUT I DON'T WANT TO BUT I THINK THERE'S. GOT TO BE MORE TO THAT. I'M REALLY WATCHING THIS VERY CLOSE. I DON'T WANT TO PRE-JUDGE what's going on.

But I would consider this pretty significant. And the impact is going to be immense. The explanation given by the government is, quote, extraordinary circumstances and, quote, reasons of safety. Yeah, and that's what's concerning. I mean, obviously if there's some, if it's a technical issue. or then I think we just need to. know what that is I DON'T UNDERSTAND. WHAT WOULD THAT ISSUE BE? DIFFERENT AIRPORTS HAVE DIFFERENT TYPES.

OF SYSTEMS. THERE ARE SOME FEDERAL SAFETY SYSTEMS IN place. Um, the amount of people that are going to be. grounded across this country is going to cause, uh, major interruptions and chaos. And so I think the sooner that the transportation. department and certainly, quite frankly, the White House explains. what's going on, the better. Because this is pretty, um, pretty significant. Tom, let me bring you in on what it IT TAKES TO.

IMPLEMENT SOMETHING LIKE THIS. THERE ARE OBVIOUSLY FLIGHTS HEADING INTO OUR. COUNTRY FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. SO IT'S ONE THING TO STOP IT'S NOT GOING. TO STOP ALL PLANES FROM TAKING OFF, BUT WHAT DO YOU DO WITH ALL THE PLANES. THAT ARE INBOUND RIGHT NOW? A LOT OF THE AIRPLANES WILL BE. DIVERTED TO, LIKE CANADA, that's what happened during. 9-11. Ones that aren't too far, they can turn around and go. back. Other ones that are now close to the states,

they'll try to divert to Canada or elsewhere. They may be able to accommodate a few coming. in but once again we don't know what the issue. is here i'm looking at some places they're. talking about 30-minute delays other ones just. says ground stop and there's no information. in terms of exactly when that's going to be. One here is they're saying the ground stop is until. 430, and I've seen that pop up from the FA website, which indicates it could be over. with fairly soon,

but they're also given their probability. of extension as medium 30 to 60 percent. So until I know what's going on here, it's really hard to say what the issue is. Is this some huge computer MALFUNCTION OR IS. THERE SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENING? WHAT WERE YOUR QUESTIONS RIGHT NOW, CONGRESSMAN? I MEAN, I THINK THE BIGGEST QUESTION I HAVE IS. IF THIS IF THIS IS EXACTLY AS REPORTED, IF THIS IS SOME TYPE OF COMPUTER MALFUNCTION OR. IT'S A TECHNOLOGY ISSUE,

I OBVIOUSLY THAT MIGHT BE A BETTER SCENARIO. NONE OF THIS IS good. I want to understand what exactly happened to. ground every airport and airplane. I think there's a lot that we need. We just don't have enough information. I hope that the FAA, that the Department of. TRANSPORTATION. GETS IN FRONT OF THIS QUICKLY. I THINK THIS IS UNFORTUNATELY. GOING TO CAUSE MASS CHAOS FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE, A LOT OF FAMILIES THAT ARE GROUNDED. WHEN YOU GROUND THIS MANY FLIGHTS AT ONCE,

IT CAUSES A RIPPLE EFFECT. AND SO ALL OF OUR FLIGHTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY ARE. INTERCONNECTED. AND THEN TO DIVERT OBVIOUSLY INCOMING FLIGHTS. IS REALLY DIFFICULT. SO OBVIOUSLY FIRST I MEAN I'M I'M JUST, I FEEL, OBVIOUSLY, I THINK WE SHOULD ALL FEEL TERRIBLE. FOR ALL THESE PEOPLE THAT ARE. ABOUT TO EXPERIENCE A REALLY, REALLY ROUGH NEXT FEW HOURS OR DAY. AND SO I'M HOPING EVERYTHING IS OKAY. AND HOPEFULLY WE'LL GET WE'LL GET MORE. INFORMATION SOON. TOM, HOW CENTRALIZED IS THE ENTIRE AVIATION.

SYSTEM FROM A TECHNOLOGICAL LEVEL? I'M REALLY NOT CERTAIN NOWADAYS. THEY'VE DONE A LOT OF CHANGES TO. it um i there are areas where they're. interconnect but to shut down. from chicago boston new york that seems. quite strange to me but i to be honest. i'm not sure exactly how they reconfigured. the system over the last few years. um i want to share what we do know. we have the smartest people around asking the questions.

but. let me just level set UNITED STATES WITH. WHAT HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY THE GOVERNMENT, BY THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION. THIS IS THE ONLY STATEMENT AVAILABLE SO FAR. FROM THE THE F .A .A., QUOTE, THE F .A .A. ISSUED A NATIONWIDE GROUNDSTOP FOR ALL U .S. AIRPORTS FOLLOWING COMMUNICATION ISSUES. IMPACTING MULTIPLE AIR ROUTE. WE WILL PROVIDE UPDATES. CONTROL CENTERS? FAA TECHNICIANS ARE INVESTIGATING THE ISSUE. WE WILL PROVIDE THE UPDATES.

TOM, DOES THAT OPEN THE DOOR TO. THE POTENTIAL THAT THE SYSTEMS. TECHNOLOGICALLY WERE I KNOW THERE WAS A. BIG E-MAIL OUTTAGE YESTERDAY. IS THIS ABOUT CYBER VULNERABILITIES? THAT'S CERTAINLY A CONCERN NOWADAYS BECAUSE. OF THERE ARE A LOT OF HACKERS OUT THERE, THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WOULD LIKE TO INTERFERE. WITH TRANSPORTATION IN THE UNITED STATES. SO CERTAINLY, YOU KNOW, THE ISSUE OF THE SYSTEM. BEING.

HACKED INTO ON A BROAD SCALE IS. SOMETHING THAT'S POSSIBLE NOWADAYS, AND HOPEFULLY WE'LL FIND OUT MORE. ABOUT THIS. THE DELAYS, YOU KNOW, APPEAR TO BE NOT GOING TO. BE LONG BY. WHAT THEY'RE SHOWING NOW, BUT I'M NOT SURE WHAT. INFORMATION THEY. have it's uh yeah i'm seeing sure looking. at it looking at the message here they're going. you know showing ground stops due to. equipment outage but there did be resets. times you know here within the next less.

than an hour. So I don't know. Does this mean anything to. you? Congressman following communication. issues impacting multiple air route. traffic control centers? No, I mean, I think what's hard to. understand is. how a communications issue could ground. the entire system across the country for. for at every single airport, that's very concerning. And I think some clearly a vulnerability,

but I think we just do not know enough yet. I think we need to understand. IS IT EXTERNAL ISSUE, IS IT EXTERNAL ISSUE, IS IT EXTERNAL, I DON'T WANT TO PRE-JUDGE WHAT COULD BE. HAPPENING, BUT IT IS INCREDIBLY SERIOUS. AND I THINK THAT WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO. OBVIOUSLY FIGURE OUT WHAT'S HAPPENING, I HOPE THAT THE FAA CONTINUES TO PUT. OUT AS MUCH INFORMATION. AS THEY CAN TO BE TRANSPARENT WITH THE. PUBLIC, I THINK YOU'LL PROBABLY. HAVE PEOPLE. RIGHT NOW AT AIRPORTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY OR FOLKS. THAT ARE.

ABOUT TO BOARD A FLIGHT, PEOPLE JUST WANT. INFORMATION, SO I THINK THE MORE TRANSPARENT AND. HONEST WE CAN BE WITH THE AMERICAN. PUBLIC RIGHT NOW I THINK IS THE BEST. THING THE FAA CAN DO. THE LATEST WE ARE HEARING IS. I THINK IT IS THAT EVERYTHING, ALL DEPARTING FLIGHTS ARE GROUNDED UNTIL 5 P .M. EASTERN. SO TOM, TO YOUR POINT ABOUT ABOUT THE TIMELINE LOOKING. RELATIVELY SHORT-TERM. THAT STILL PERTAINS, BUT IT IS SLIDING FROM 430. TO 5.

DOES THAT SIGNAL ANYTHING to you? Well, it indicates that they know what's going. on. if they're willing to make those kind. of predictions. So hopefully that'll hold. Now, if we get to 5, 530 and they're still. working the problem, then it's a bigger issue than we thought um. it we don't have enough information right now. is the problem um but certainly you're looking. at they're talking about 30 mid delays an hour. delay thing like that they're they're not they. at least they put a timeline. on when they expect to have the system back.

working again but an hour delay. in our transportation system is huge i mean. that just backs everything up and it's not. what we're going to do is we're going to have. a lot of the air travel system is something. else entirely which i think we're going to. have an hour delay at any airport is problematic. but an hour delay across the entire. air travel system is something else entirely. which i think that the big the big concern. and so i'm hopeful that the faa we've got great.

people the faa a lot of civil servants are. working hard on this i know right now. and so hopefully we'll get some answers. and i think for those that are traveling. they're going to want to know if you're. about to board an airplane i think you want to. know exactly what this communication error is. and so i think that that that the faa owes. it to the public as soon as possible to explain what. exactly is causing. this issue across the country. because i think you're going to have a lot. of people that are going to be questioning. what's going THAT IS GOING ON AS THEY ARE.

ABOUT TO BOARD THEIR PLANE.