President Donald Trump still has not addressed the Federal Aviation Administration’s rare ground stop of all flights nationwide on Friday, instead clearing his schedule and posting about his plan to ‘save’ Hollywood.
The FAA grounded all flights nationwide Friday afternoon, citing ‘extraordinary circumstances for safety reasons’ and upending thousands of travelers’s weekend plans.
The reason for the halting of US flights was communicated by the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) at 3.54pm ET.
Around 5.52pm ET, Trump posted on Truth Social about his desire to ‘make our entertainment industry great again,’ outlining how he was working with politicians across both aisles on the Motion Picture, Television and Entertainment Revitalization Act.
Trump’s post was criticized by CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, who wrote on X: ‘Trump posts, not about the ground stop, but about reviving the entertainment industry in bipartisan fashion.’
The President’s weekend schedule listed Executive Time at 8am on Saturday and Sunday, with no other scheduled engagements.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of any threats to the US, adding that the incident was a ‘communication outage.’
‘This isn’t the same comparison to 9/11,’ Mullin told reporters outside the White House on Friday. ‘That’s a road I won’t go down.’
President Donald Trump posted ‘about his desire to ‘make our entertainment industry great again’ as the FAA ground stop continued on Friday afternoon
The flight halt was the first since January 11, 2023, which happened after a key FAA computer system malfunctioned
The flight halt was the first since January 11, 2023, which happened after a key FAA computer system malfunctioned, and just the second since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Meanwhile, Trump was posting about how Hollywood had been ’emptied out.’
‘Everyone feels strongly about the Motion Picture and Television Industry — and so do I, and we all want to save it,’ he wrote. ‘It was MADE IN AMERICA, and must STAY IN AMERICA.’
Trump also posted on Truth Social to thank the US Coast Guard for their response to the boat that capsized into the Mississippi River shortly after midday and injured 32 passengers.
The Democratic members of the House Committee on Homeland Security’s account account on X criticized the Trump administration’s response to the ground stop.
‘What the hell is going on?’ the Democrats’ account wrote. ‘Trump and his cabinet are completely out of their depth.’
The FAA said Friday: ‘There has been a temporary telecommunications outage – out of an abundance of caution, all flights have been halted.
‘Every flight has been accounted for, and international flights will be handled on a case-by-case basis.’
The communications problems resulting in the nationwide ground stop are seemingly not linked to the FAA’s new AI-powered system
A timeline for restarting flights remained unclear as of Friday evening as thousands of passengers saw their weekend plans disrupted
It does not appear that the communications problems resulting in the nationwide ground stop are linked to the FAA’s new AI-powered system that the agency is rolling out to help predict problems in the sky.
The FAA’s SMART system is based in a single location near Washington DC, where a team of experts analyzes flight schedules, weather forecasts and hundreds of other streams of data.
That office then sends recommendations to the FAA’s command center that relays them to controllers across the country for consideration.
The company that designed the system, ASI, said ‘the current ground stop is not based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA and ATC.’
Mullin added that he did not see ‘any reason to connect’ today’s ground stop to yesterday’s global Microsoft outage that left millions unable to use the company’s subscription services.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also said that a communications issue was affecting the regional air traffic control centers that direct planes between airports.
Duffy said that FAA technicians were investigating. A timeline for restarting flights remains unclear.
Europe’s aviation agency has suspended US-bound departures at the request of the FAA from 5 pm Eastern on Friday until midnight.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of any threats to the US and rejected comparisons to the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
The FAA said Friday that international flights into the US would be handled on a case-by-case basis
MS NOW correspondent Eugene Daniels said stranded passengers had told him they were surprised that Trump had not addressed the FAA ground stop, Mediaite reported.
Daniels, appearing on the MS NOW program Deadline: White House, said: ‘Obviously, we heard from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin but folks are looking to hear more information from the leader of the free world, as this is shaking out.’
‘As I’ve walked and talked with people… what they would say to me was they are shocked that they have not heard from the president in front of the camera,’ Daniels said.
Daniels added that one person said they were ‘disturbed’ by the lack of information ‘coming from this administration.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment.
This is a developing story. More to come.
