Airplanes are grounded across the US. ( Reuters: Jonathan Ernst )
All departing flights across the US have been grounded after a national halt order was issued by the nation's aviation regulator.
The Federal Aviation Administration says a communication issue has affected all air route traffic control centres.
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The US Federal Aviation Administration says flights have been grounded due to a temporary telecommunications outage.
"Out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted," the agency said in a statement.
"Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis."
To give you an idea of just how busy the US's airspace is right now, here is a shot of the country from the FlightRadar24 website.
The aircraft monitor shows hundreds of flights are in still in the air over the country.
As we've mentioned, the national halt order does not prevent those flights from landing, it will only impact planes still on the ground.
US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has briefed reporters at the White House on the national ground stop.
He said there was no threat to the public, but the root cause of the problem is not known.
"There's no reason for the public to be afraid or scared for your loved ones," he said.
"This is a telecommunications outage. This is much different."
Mullin could not say how long it would take for things to return to normal.
"This isn't just going to be resolved and turned around within the hour," he said.
He would not rule out a cyber attack, nor problems related to new AI-powered technology being rolled out in air control towers.
US media is reporting that FBI and law enforcement sources do not believe the problem is the result of a cyber attack.
Mr Mullin said there was also no reason to think yesterday's global Microsoft outage was linked to the issue.
The nationwide ground stop came after the FAA first halted traffic in Chicago due to air traffic control issues.
The following order then stopped "all departing traffic … until further notice".
The regulator says all international flights will be managed on a case-by-case basis.
The order means flights already in the air may land but flights on the ground cannot take off.
This is only the second nationwide ground stop in the United States since the September 11 terror attacks .
The last one was in January 2023 , when domestic departures were paused for less than two hours.
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the unfolding flight halt affecting all aircraft currently operating in the United States .
The US Federal Aviation Administration has issued a national ground stop "due to extraordinary circumstance and reasons for safety".
It comes after the agency earlier reported serious air traffic control communications issues.
My ABC colleagues and I will keep you up to date here with ongoing developments and information as it becomes available to us.
