Milwaukee travelers experience flight delays, cancellations after nationwide FAA ground stop

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Travelers at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport faced unexpected delays and cancellations Friday night after a nationwide FAA ground stop disrupted air travel across the country.

The Details

The nationwide ground stop was eventually lifted. For some passengers, the disruption meant scrambling to find another flight and adjusting travel plans.

“It’s been a shock actually. We were not prepared for this, we are just going with the flow and trying to get on a flight tonight,” said traveler Joe Alaka Jr. “My dad’s birthday is tomorrow and we were trying to get out tonight so we are going to try to wait it out and see if we can fly tonight."

Watch TMJ4 reporter Meryl Hubbard's story about the impacts in the video below:

For one passenger, the travel disruption came on top of an already difficult Friday the 13th.

“This is definitely going to be a Friday to remember. Earlier today I was let go from my job, so that’s how my day started. And I was thinking, 'Oh well, I’m already booked for a trip…' I was like, 'might as well make a fun weekend out of it.' Looks like that’s not happening. Round one was getting let go from my job, round two is getting stranded here in Milwaukee," said Tamas Petenyi.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a communication issue was affecting regional air traffic control centers responsible for directing planes between airports nationwide.

“We started to have inconsistency in the data from the radars and our communication with, uh, with airplanes. And we have procedures for this. Our pilots are well trained, our air traffic controllers are well trained. And at that point, we issued a ground stop,” Duffy said.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the situation did not put passengers in danger and that the FAA acted out of caution.

"The public was never at danger through this process. Um, there was, there was never any lives at risk. Uh, there was no flights at risk. FAA was able to handle it," Mullin said.

National News

FAA nationwide ground stop: What to know about delays, rebooking and refunds Scripps News Group Officials also addressed concerns about a possible connection between the telecommunications outage and a Microsoft outage that happened just a day earlier.

"I want to make sure everybody understands that there is no connection between this and Microsoft. I know a lot of people are making that jump. This is so far what we've seen, there is actually no cyberattack," Mullin said.

A spokesperson for Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport advises travelers to check with their airline for updates and to determine their next steps.

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