Stranded by grounded flights, US travelers turn to trains and cars as more than 5,000 Saturday flights are canceled
The effects of Friday's nationwide ground stop in the United States had not cleared by Saturday. As air traffic slowly began to unsnarl, thousands of travelers abandoned planes for trains and automobiles, though they still encountered obstacles at the rental car counter and on Amtrak's booking system.
More than 9,000 flights in the United States were canceled on Friday, and more than 5,000 more were shelved on Saturday. According to aviation data firm Cirium, as of 3:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, more than 22 percent of the day's total scheduled departures — about 5,000 flights — had been canceled. Even the 11:30 a.m. figure stood at more than 3,900 cancellations, about 17 percent of departures.
Departing flights were halted across the country for nearly five hours on Friday evening. Federal officials said the cascading communications failures started with routine maintenance on air traffic control equipment at a remote site. The federal contractor L3Harris was updating air traffic control equipment before the nationwide outage.
Federal Aviation Administration administrator Bryan Bedford said officials had ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack. No air traffic facilities went entirely dark, he said, though the FAA received reports of certain frequencies being affected.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Friday requested $50 billion for a complete overhaul of the aging air traffic control system. Throughout his news conference he repeatedly stressed that he would choose safety over inconvenience.
On Saturday afternoon, San Francisco International Airport still showed the effects of the FAA ground stop. At Los Angeles International Airport's Tom Bradley international terminal, by contrast, the scene around 11 a.m. was comparatively calm.
The balcony in Hartsfield-Jackson's central atrium remained a sort of campsite for weary travelers whose flights were delayed or canceled. At Chicago O'Hare's Terminal One, the security line was virtually nonexistent at 10:50 a.m. local time on Saturday. The FAA had not extended a ground stop for United Airlines flights at O'Hare, which was scheduled to end at 11 a.m. Eastern.
Randy Near, 58, a home inspector from Washington State, was furious on Saturday as he waited with a pile of luggage, together with his 24-year-old son Charlie.
The disruption reached other travel and events as well. The National Football League said this weekend's games would go forward as planned, but that the league had adjusted its officiating assignments. Princess Cruises said it would delay departure times for three of its ships.
By Saturday there were also signs of slow recovery: the line to pick up luggage checked for Friday flights was shrinking, and departure screens at airports were beginning to look normal again.
