‘National equipment outage’ stops flights for hours at the nation’s airports

A nationwide ground stop issued by the Federal Aviation Administration delayed hundreds of flights at San Diego International Airport on Friday due to a national communications outage. “As of 1 p.m. today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) activated a nationwide ground stop due to an equipment outage,” said San Diego Airport spokesperson Nicole Hall. “Flights are currently not departing from the San Diego International Airport. Arriving flights will continue to land as space allows.” According to FlightAware, an aviation data company, San Diego’s airport reported 297 delayed flights and 166 cancellations due to the ground stop, which was lifted Friday night after a five-hour stretch when most flights were not allowed to take off from airports in the United States. Hall told Times of San Diego that some flights were diverted from San Diego International to regional airports due to gates being full.

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