FAA issues rare nationwide ground stop amid questions about new AI system

The Federal Aviation Administration announced a nationwide ground stop at 4:16 p.m. ET, suspending more than 2,000 flights and halting arrivals into the United States. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the action, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin attributed the stoppage to a telecommunications outage rather than a security threat.

The timing coincided with the rollout of the FAA's $875 million Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories (SMART) system, an AI-driven, cloud-based platform intended to help controllers predict traffic flows and resolve conflicts. The administration described SMART as analyzing airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, airspace conditions and operational constraints.

Air Space Intelligence (ASI), the aerospace and defense firm that developed SMART, denied any link between the system and the ground stop in a post on X, stating, \"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.\"

When asked whether SMART could have affected the national air traffic control network, Secretary Mullin said, \"You can't rule out anything at this point. We are going through that process and we're going to find out what happened. When we do, we'll take the appropriate actions to make sure it doesn't happen again.\"

The FAA has not confirmed a connection between the AI tool and the stoppage. SMART has been operating in Washington, D.C. airspace since at least September 21 and was announced for rollout to 22 centers nationwide on Nov. 10. The administration reported that SMART had successfully rerouted 180 flights since its deployment.