FAA issues rare nationwide ground stop, stranding flyers at Omaha's Eppley Airfield

OMAHA, Neb. — The Federal Aviation Administration issued a rare nationwide ground stop on all departing flights from the U.S. on Friday, citing extraordinary circumstances and reasons of safety.

The ground stop took effect just after 3 p.m. Friday and applied to all U.S. airports. The FAA and White House said the issue appeared to be caused by a telecommunications outage. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a social media post that FAA technicians were investigating.

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At Omaha's Eppley Airfield, the grounding confused travelers. An Alaska Airlines agent said crews learned of the stop directly from the cockpit.

"They kind of went up to go speak to the captain, and he got on the intercom and he came out and was like, 'OK, yeah, all flights are grounded,' and we started the deplaning process," the agent said. "So at this point we're going to open up the ticket counter and possibly start to rebook, but still at this time we're not sure exactly what's going on here at Eppley Airfield."

Several flyers said they didn't get any notification from the airlines that their flights would be grounded. Instead, they found out through TikTok and Homeland Security.

Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullin told reporters in a briefing outside the White House that there was no indication that the grounding was a nefarious act against the U.S. He also said flights were grounded out of an abundance of caution and that all flights were accounted for.

Investigations are ongoing.

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