A ground stop was ordered at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport on Sunday due to an equipment outage.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued the ground stop at 10:40 a.m. ET on Mother’s Day.
‘Departures to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International are grounded due to equipment outage,’ the agency said.
The ground stop was issued for flights scheduled to leave from East Coast area airports bound for Atlanta, reported Atlanta News First.
Arrivals were slowed down due to ‘a runway equipment issue,’ and technicians worked to fix the issue.
The ground stop was lifted shortly before 12:30 p.m., and departures continued to be delayed by 20 minutes.
The FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center implemented a traffic management program at the travel hub.
‘There is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport,’ said the FAA.
A ground stop has been ordered at the Atlanta airport (pictured) Sunday due to an equipment outage
‘Because a traffic management program is delaying some arriving flights, departing flight schedules may be affected.’
At least 410 flights have been delayed and five canceled by 1 p.m. at the Atlanta airport, according to FlightAware.
The chaos in Atlanta comes as New Jersey’s Newark Airport has been hit with massive delays for two weeks.
Radar screens went dark at the New York City area travel hub early Friday during a close call that nearly became a midair disaster.
The momentary power outage hit at 3:55 a.m. ET, when air traffic was luckily very light, and lasted for about for 90 seconds.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a statement on X Friday, revealing the blackout was caused by a ‘telecommunications outage’ at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) Area C.
This control center, located 90 miles away at the Philadelphia International Airport, manages air traffic for Newark Airport and smaller airports nearby.
It’s the second radar blackout to hit Newark in the past two weeks. The previous outage truck the airport’s air traffic control tower on April 28, causing computer screens to go dark for 60 to 90 seconds.
The chaos in Atlanta comes as New Jersey’s Newark Airport (pictured) has been hit with massive delays for two weeks
The busy airport (pictured in July) experienced disruptions for the last two weeks, which officials blamed on air traffic controller staffing issues and construction
Days after the April 28 incident, an air traffic controller at Newark Airport warned flyers to stay away from the New Jersey airport.
The unnamed source told NBC’s Tom Costello: ‘It’s not a safe situation for the flying public!’
‘Don’t fly into Newark. Avoid Newark at all costs,’ the air traffic controller added.
During the blackout Friday, air traffic controllers were reportedly overheard telling a FedEx cargo plane their radars screens were offline.
They allegedly told the plane’s pilots to put pressure on their company to help get the problems fixed.
A private jet was also reportedly told to stay above 3,000 feet because the air traffic controllers couldn’t guarantee that they’d be able to contact the plane during its descent for landing.
The radar blackout also happened just days after more than 20 percent of Newark’s tower controllers allegedly ‘walked off the job’ following the first power outage.
Officially, several of the air traffic controllers used their ‘trauma leave’ following the first radar blackout on April 28.
On Friday, air traffic controllers in Philadelphia, who are responsible for directing aircrafts in at Newark, experienced a radar blackout for the second time in two week
The massive delays come as the Trump administration has worked to address the air traffic controller shortage, while the president has blamed DEI for the recent spate of aviation disasters.
Donald Trump vowed to purge DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – from U.S. aviation, among other federal agencies, in the wake of the deadly midair collision at Reagan National airport in January that claimed 67 lives.
Since the beginning of 2025, at least 143 people have died in 36 US aviation incidents, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
This is a developing story…
