The Federal Aviation Administration ended a nationwide ground stop that it had ordered for all U.S. airports on Friday afternoon. The FAA issued the order following communication issues that affected multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers, but did not specify what caused those problems or when it expected to lift the grounding.
To track your flight status, you can search your flight number on Google, which will display a live tracker at the top of results. You can also visit your airline's official website. United Airlines, for example, has a flight tracker where you can enter your route or flight number. Other airlines offer similar tools.
Third-party flight tracking sites like FlightAware let you search flights if you know the origin and destination. On an iPhone, you can enter your flight number into Spotlight search to view a live tracker, or text the number to a contact and tap the link that appears.
The exact cause of the communications issues remains unclear. The ground stop is only the third such order in U.S. history, following one after 9/11 and another in January 2023 due to a pilot alert system issue that lasted around 90 minutes.