Flights delayed or canceled at T.F. Green after nationwide ground stop

All departing flights at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport were halted Friday afternoon after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop amid communication issues with Air Route Traffic Control Centers.

The rare FAA order, known as a ground stop, came shortly before 4 p.m., with the agency citing “extraordinary circumstances” and safety concerns. Aircraft already in the air were still permitted to land, while international flights would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Air space opened up again at about 8:15 p.m. Eastern, officials said in in a White House briefing Friday night.

A post on the FAA’s X account posted at 5:02 p.m. said, “There has been a temporary telecommunications outage – out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted. Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis.”

“The FAA has declared a nationwide ground stop related to frequency issues with air traffic control,” Bill Fischer, spokesperson for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, said in an emailed statement shortly before 5 p.m. “Like every airport in the nation, PVD is impacted by this ground stop. All departures are halted at this time.”

Samantha Decker, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Port Authority, offered a similar statement in an email Friday that the ground stop was affecting Boston’s Logan Airport as well.

“We are monitoring the situation and working with the FAA and our airline partners,” Decker said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an X post at 4:16 p.m. that FAA technicians were investigating the issue, and that updates would be issued as they became available.

The length of the ground stop order or how many flights at T.F. Green would be delayed was not immediately clear.

Fischer said that travelers should contact their airlines for information on specifics impacts and delays regarding their flights.

The stop is the most severe shutdown of air travel since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, according to reporting from The New York Times.

The T.F. Green website Friday night showed nine flights departing between 4 and 8:30 p.m. were canceled with five others scheduled to depart between over two and seven hours late.