By Tony Kukulich, Shellie Murdaugh and Mike McCombs
The Island News
The Federal Aviation Administration has, in an extraordinary move, halted the departure of aircraft all across the nation.
“The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following communications issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers,” read a statement from an FAA spokesperson provided to The Island News.
The statement added that FAA technicians are investigating the issue. So far, a possible cause for the communication trouble has not been identified.
Locally, both Hilton Head Island Airport and Beaufort Executive Airport in Beaufort County and Ridgeland – Claude Dean Airport in Jasper County are impacted by shut down.
Jon Rembold, Beaufort County Airports Director, confirmed the ground stop, but said he had no further information.
At Savannah Hilton Head International Airport, nine departing flights have been put on hold, according to airport spokesperson Lori Lynah.
“It’s affecting all departing flights everywhere. That creates all kinds of ripple effects. That’s all we know,” Linah said, adding that a 6 p.m., update from the FAA was expected.
Officials with the Jasper County Ridgeland-Claude Dean Airport said all guidelines were being followed due to the order.
A large airplane drifted across the sky above the airport Friday evening around 5:30 p.m., as though it was looking to land but kept moving toward Savannah.
There were no activity at the Ridgeland airport other than the lone plane flying through the area.
“The Ridgeland-Claude Dean Airport was not experiencing any activity at the time the ground stop was issued,” Jasper County Public Information Officer Christian Felt said Friday evening.
Felt said the airport is following all applicable FAA guidelines and protocols, and all parties (who might be affected) have been notified. He did not state whether or not other airplanes might have to land at the airport to leave the airspace Friday night.
It is just the third time such a ground stoppage has been ordered by the FAA.
The first was Sept. 11, 2001 after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York and The Pentagon in Washington D.C. The second was Jan. 11, 2023, when there was an outage in the FAA’s system what alerts pilots when there are safety issues with their flight.
It is unclear what has caused the ground stoppage, but the New York Times reported that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters that this is not a terrorist attack.
“This isn’t another 9/11,” he said. “This is a telecommunication outage.”
Mullin also told reporters that this issue was going to take some “substantial time” to fix, though he emphasized all flights are safe and accounted for and there is no danger to the public.
The stoppage has caused delays for thousands of flights — more than 10,000 according to the New York Times as of 6 p.m. — and as time passes, will likely cause delays for thousands more, causing a chain reaction through the weekend, at best, but maybe even longer. As flights back up, pilots, flight crews and ground workers will be affected with many reaching their legally set work limits.
Also, as airports already crowded with grounded planes see the arrival of more flights already in the air, many flights will have to be diverted to smaller, less-crowded airports, leaving passengers stranded somewhere other than their destination.
The ground stoppage comes just before the Thanksgiving holiday season, during which nearly 3 million passengers are expected to fly each day, according to airline industry group Airlines for America.
This story will be updated as more details become available.
You can reach Tony Kukulich at tkukulich@theislandnews.com or at 854-257-8125.
Shellie Murdaugh, who joined The Island News in October 2026, formerly worked as a reporter for The Jasper County Sun Times and Bluffton Today. She also worked for newspapers in Hampton and Colleton counties in South Carolina and in North Carolina at The Richmond County Daily Journal. She can be reached at smurdaugh@theislandnews.com.
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.