Pittsburgh International Airport impacted by FAA's nationwide ground stop
A nationwide ground stop impacted the Pittsburgh International Airport yesterday, scuttling travel plans for passengers on dozens of flights.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop on all departing flights on Friday afternoon due to "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety." Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a social media post that the stop was issued "following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers."
The Pittsburgh International Airport's website showed dozens of departures and arrivals are delayed or canceled. In a statement, the airport said the ground stop meant that flights could land but departing flights were being held. Passengers with flights this evening should check with their airlines on their flight status.
The ground stop left people scrambling to make plans, with hotels around the airport filling up quickly and rental cars in high demand.
"According to online, it's still on for tonight," passenger Jason Spitzer said before the ground stop was lifted. "It's four-plus hours delayed, but I'm kind of expecting it to get canceled so I'll either have to camp out here or go find a hotel somewhere."
The Pittsburgh airport said medical and military flights were still able to operate, and TSA checkpoints remained open.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters in a briefing outside the White House that there's no indication yet that this is a "nefarious act," rather just a telecommunication outage.
