Every Flight Is Grounded on Day Trump Admin Installed AI Controls

The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop at all U.S. airports effective 3:54 p.m. EST Friday until 11 p.m., citing "extraordinary circumstances" and "reasons of safety," allowing airborne flights to land but barring departures. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication yet of a nefarious attack and described it as "a telecommunication outage," while declining to rule out a cyberattack; Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed it to "a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers." The article notes expert speculation that a mishap with the new cloud-based, AI-supported "SMART" air traffic management platform, scheduled to go live Friday, could be to blame, and that it is just the second nationwide ground stop since Sept. 11, 2001.