The US Federal Aviation Administration canceled a national ground stop of all departing flights on Friday, which was issued earlier that day due to communication difficulties.
"Things seem to be working, as we can say, in the right direction," DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said following the cancellation of the ground stop.
Mullin emphasized that "everybody is safe," and said that there had been no cyberattack involved.
Nearly 7,000 flights were delayed or canceled, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. Planes already in the air were allowed to land, but those on the ground could not take off.
Shortly before the announcement, the FAA halted traffic in Chicago due to air traffic control communications issues. The agency said, "All departing traffic should remain groundstopped until further notice."
The FAA said international flights would be managed on a case-by-case basis.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that FAA technicians are investigating the issue and will provide updates as they have them.
No reason to believe communications issue due to cyberattack, Trump, DHS secretary says
The chief of the US Department of Homeland Security said on Friday there was no reason for the public to be afraid after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights nationwide following a communications failure that hit air traffic control centers across the country.
"Everybody's safe. There's no reason to be concerned about your loved ones if they're flying, I just want everyone to be at ease about that," Mullin said.
Mullin also stated that there was no evidence of a cyberattack.
"There is no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack against us, it is just a telecommunications outage as of right now," he said.
US President Donald Trump later told Fox News that the issue did not seem to be due to a cyberattack or AI.
Second nationwide ground stop since 9/11
Friday was the second nationwide ground stop of all departures since the September 11, 2001, attacks. The other happened in January 2023, when the FAA paused all domestic departures for less than two hours.
Last year, Congress approved $12.5 billion to fix the FAA's aging communications system, and on Friday the FAA and White House asked Congress for another $30.1 billion to address other issues.
Eurocontrol suspends US-bound departures at FAA request
All US-bound traffic departing from Eurocontrol member states has been suspended at the FAA's request because of technical issues, Eurocontrol's website showed on Friday.
There are 42 Eurocontrol member states, including Israel.
US National Weather Service walks back report on internet, communications problems
The US National Weather Service said on Friday it was experiencing nationwide internet and communications problems that could prevent users from accessing products on its websites or cause outdated information to be displayed.
Technicians were working to resolve the problems as soon as possible, the NWS said in a statement.
NWS later stated that there is no radar outage and that radar.weather.gov is fully operational.