ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Planes are moving again at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Mo., after a nationwide ground stop froze departures for roughly four hours on Friday afternoon and evening.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered every airport in the country to hold flights around 3 p.m. Friday, pointing to extraordinary circumstances and safety. A later federal statement tied the stop to communication trouble at the regional Air Route Traffic Control Centers that guide planes between airports, and FAA technicians were sent to track down the cause.
Lambert officials confirmed that every departure out of St. Louis was held. Aircraft already in flight were cleared to land, and international arrivals were handled one at a time.
Inside the terminal, nearly every flight on the Friday afternoon and evening schedule showed as delayed or canceled. Some travelers gave up on flying and rented cars to drive toward their destinations, hoping to catch a flight farther down the road once the system reopened.
Federal officials said Friday night they had found no sign of a cyberattack and pointed to aging technology as the likely culprit, without explaining why the system buckled that afternoon.
Nationwide stops are rare. The last one came in January 2023 after a computer update problem, and before that all flights were halted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Anyone flying out of Lambert this weekend should check with their airline before heading to the airport, since delays can ripple through schedules for a day or more.
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Filed under: St. Louis MO Traffic News
