Some US-bound flights from Australia grounded during US telecommunications outage

Some flights from Australia bound for the United States were grounded or delayed on Saturday, after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the federal agency that regulates American air travel, issued a nationwide ground stop. A ground stop is an order to halt flights, and this one halted departures and delayed landings at all US airports. The FAA said the pause was in response to a temporary telecommunications outage.

Sydney Airport said it was aware of the ground stop and was monitoring the situation closely. It later confirmed that the US restriction on flight arrivals had been lifted shortly before 1pm.

In Melbourne, passengers due to leave for Los Angeles shortly after 10am were delayed by more than two hours. Two other US-bound flights, scheduled to depart at 12pm and 12.45pm, were also held up. Those included a Qantas flight to Dallas and a United Airlines flight to San Francisco.

Flights to the US were delayed at Brisbane Airport as well. Passengers on one US-bound flight there began boarding at around 1pm.

The FAA has since lifted its nationwide grounding order. The agency is continuing to investigate the cause of the telecommunications outage.