The key facts

  • The FAA halted flights across the US as a precaution after a telecommunications failure at air traffic control centers
  • Microsoft said there are no signs linking the halt to its services; the company was separately dealing with its own global outage
  • Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said FAA technicians were investigating the communications problem

Nationwide flight halt

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted flights nationwide after a telecommunications failure affecting Air Route Traffic Control Centers. The agency called the measure a precaution and confirmed that the fate of every flight had been accounted for. According to the FAA, international flights would be considered individually.

Microsoft denies connection to its outage

The coincidence in timing with a separate global outage at Microsoft raised questions about a possible link between the two events. The company stated that there are 'no signs' that the nationwide flight halt is connected to any of its services. Microsoft's own outage affected mail and other online services worldwide; the company attributed it to an unexpected shutdown of several servers, which placed additional load on the remaining systems.

What officials say

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said FAA technicians were investigating a 'communications problem' and that updates would be published as information comes in. Homeland Security Secretary Marcwayne Mullin also told journalists that he sees no grounds to consider the flight halt connected to the Microsoft services outage. Thus, officials and the company agree that a link between the two incidents has not been confirmed, but the cause of the telecommunications failure at the control centers remained under investigation at the time of publication.