FAA Grounds All U.S. Flights as Hollywood's Awards Weekend Gets Under Way
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights in the United States on Friday, 13 November, and said the stoppage would last until further notice. The ground stop was announced just after 1 p.m. Pacific time, according to Variety.
The agency said the halt was due to "extraordinary circumstances" and was for reasons of safety. An FAA spokesperson said a communications problem was affecting the Air Route Traffic Control Centers. These regional centres track planes moving between airports across the country, which is different from the control towers that guide aircraft in and out of individual airports.
It is the first full stoppage of U.S. flights since the attacks of 11 September 2001, Variety reported. By the time of that report, more than 7,800 flights across the country had already been delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking service.
Preliminary reports, citing law enforcement officials and media outlets, indicate the grounding is not a cyberattack.
The disruption landed on a busy week for the film business. The American Film Market, the annual trade fair where distributors buy and sell the rights to films around the world, runs from 10 to 15 November at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City. Many of the deals discussed there are made in meeting rooms rather than on screens, but they still depend on people moving between cities.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is set to hold its 17th Governors Awards on Sunday at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood. Honorary Oscars are set to go to Glenn Close, Ridley Scott and Floyd Norman. Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler are set to receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which honours a producer's body of work.
On Saturday, Netflix will host the official Academy screening for members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of David Fincher's The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, Variety reported.
The FAA has not said when flights will resume. Its statement left the timing open, saying only that the grounding would stay in place until further notice. For now, the people who fly for work and for awards events are waiting on the same update as everyone else.
For anyone with a flight this weekend, the practical advice is simple: check the status of your airline before leaving for the airport, and keep an eye on official FAA updates as they come.
