Travelers across Ohio spent Friday afternoon and evening watching departure boards go red after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide halt on departing flights. The agency later lifted the order, but delays and cancellations were still piling up at airports from Cleveland to Cincinnati.
The FAA issued the ground stop Friday afternoon, citing “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” Officials said a telecommunications outage disrupted communications at regional air traffic control centers. Planes already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations. Departing flights had to remain on the ground until the order was lifted.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the FAA began seeing instability in radar and communications systems around 3:36 p.m. Eastern. He blamed outdated analog equipment, saying switches and routers became overloaded and started sending inconsistent data, which led the agency to shut the system down. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there did not appear to be a cyberattack and that the public was never in danger. In a statement, the FAA said every flight had been accounted for and that international flights would be handled case by case.
The stoppage rippled through Ohio’s major airports. John Glenn Columbus International Airport and Rickenbacker International Airport both saw delayed and canceled flights. Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Dayton International Airport, and Akron-Canton Airport all warned travelers to check with their airlines before heading to the terminal. In Columbus, the regional airport authority said weekend passengers should confirm their itineraries and expect longer lines as airlines work through the disruption. Northwestern’s football team had already arrived in Columbus for Saturday’s game against Ohio State, and the Philadelphia Flyers were already in town to face the Blue Jackets.
The FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop Friday evening around 8:30 p.m., after more than four hours. Cleveland Hopkins later said flight operations were resuming. Officials cautioned that it could take time for airline schedules to recover, with delays and cancellations likely continuing overnight and into Saturday.
Friday’s halt was the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, and only the second since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. For Ohioans still trying to get home or get away for the weekend, airports across the state offered the same advice: check your flight before you leave for the airport, and be prepared to wait.
