US grounds all flights nationwide following air traffic communication issue

The US Federal Aviation Administration halted all domestic flights departing within the US due to extraordinary circumstances stemming from a communication issue across air traffic control centres. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated there was no indication of a cyber-attack and that everyone was safe, while international traffic from Eurocontrol member states was also suspended. The stoppage resulted in more than 8,500 delayed and nearly 8,000 cancelled flights, leaving tens of thousands of travellers stranded in airports nationwide. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy noted that the outage would cause a ripple effect for several days as airlines and officials work to resume normal operations.