At airports across the U.S., delayed travelers eyed flight status boards and lamented altered plans while others lingered in limbo.
Such was the state of affairs Nov. 13 while Americans endured chaos on planes, in airports and nearby highways after the Federal Aviation Administration issued its first nationwide ground stop since 2023.
In Nashville, Elizabeth Johnson had planned to fly to Detroit for her sister’s bridal shower when the ground stop delayed her flight. “I’m going to miss it unfortunately,” Johnson said. “It’s Friday the 13th, so I wasn’t meant to fly, I guess. It’s very sad, but I’d rather be safe.”
At airports from Seattle to Miami, passengers huddled around gates, trying to figure out what to do about checked luggage while others
remained glued to their phones.
At Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Charlie Spillman, 54, of Lexington, said he'd left home around noon to catch a flight to Dallas to watch the Cowboys-San Francisco 49ers game with a group of friends.
After a late lunch and a couple of drinks, the men boarded their flight around 3:40 p.m., only to be told there was a delay.
"They came back 15 to 20 minutes later and said, 'We're deboarding; there's a nationwide plane grounding,'" Spillman said. "We were like, 'We don't know what that means.'"
While Spillman had "luckily" brought a carry-on bag, his group sat waiting in the baggage area, so a friend could retrieve his checked bag from the plane.
"Then we're heading back to Lexington. We are not going to wait," Spillman said. "Football trip's over — and it's my birthday today."
Reuters reported nearly 7,000 flights had been grounded or canceled out of “an abundance of caution” over what the FAA called “extraordinary circumstances” and “safety concerns” that it blamed on a temporary communications outage.
Robert Denton-Powell had been set to fly from Jacksonville International Airport to Washington, D.C., to catch a connecting flight to Budapest for a NATO event, said he would have to reschedule.
"I'm going to have to reschedule and may be late for that event," Denton-Powell said outside the airport.
Other passengers with closer destinations opted to rent cars. Ami Lynne Eddington, who'd left Salt Lake City Friday morning for a business trip in Palm Springs, California, for a business trip, had planned to be home that night. Instead, with family obligations scheduled for Saturday, she said she planned to take a 45-mile Uber ride to Moreno Valley to book a one-way rental car.
A more-than-10-hour drive to Salt Lake City would follow but Eddington felt she had no choice. The airline, she said, had offered to rebook her via Denver late Friday but she figured renting a car would be just as fast ― and a sure thing.
“I’m going to get there just as fast at this point driving and I know I’m going to get there,” she said.
Michael Kile was waiting to fly home to Denver after visiting his mother in Nashville when all air travel ground to a halt.
“It is what it is,” Kile said. “Nothing I can do, so it doesn’t do any good for me to get upset. My frustration is only because I’m hard of hearing, so hearing the announcements and knowing what’s going on. But I’ll just wait it out.”
At John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Ohio, Herbie Johnson, a 40-year-old truck driver from Georgia, said the ground stoppage was “messing up America.” Johnson had been preparing to fly to Tampa, Florida, to retrieve his truck to pick up a haul in South Carolina.
“I’m ready to go man,” he said. His flight, scheduled for 7:35 p.m., had been delayed at least two hours.
At Indianapolis International Airport, Mike Daugherty and his brother-in-law stood in front of the arrivals/departures board shortly after 6 p.m. Both of their wives were indefinitely stuck in Chicago, on their way home from their sister’s military funeral in Florida.
Daugherty said he got an Apple News notification on his phone about the grounding and that airport staff advised him to go home shortly after.
Instead, he decided to grab dinner at the food court while awaiting an update. He saw that the FAA had cited a communications error but wants more information.
“Is that really the issue, or is it something else?” he wondered.
The ground stop came as many college football teams were preparing to fly to play opponents in other locations across the country.
In Seattle, the University of Washington football team had been at the airport Friday afternoon getting ready to leave for its Nov. 14 game against Michigan State in Lansing when the FAA order was issued. A program spokesperson said the team was had returned to campus and was awaiting instructions.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, speaking outside the White House, said all flights were accounted for and that there was no indication the outage was the result of a “nefarious attack against us.”
In Philadelphia, Megan Galle learned about the ground stop at Starbucks from another customer in line as she prepared to fly to Houston for a wedding.
Instead, the local resident was waiting at a station near Philadelphia City Hall for a train that would take her to Philadelphia International Airport, with no idea when her flight would take off.“Nervous and hopeful for a quick resolution,” she said.
Even those with weekend airport arrangements wondered whether the ground stop would affect their plans.
Businesswoman Jessica Peters of Victorville, California, said her family was scheduled to depart Ontario International Airport in Southern California on Sunday.
“We’re supposed to fly to Denver to celebrate Thanksgiving early with my parents,” Peters said. “At this point, I have no idea what is going to happen.”
Scott Wilson of Hesperia, California, said he was supposed to pick up his wife from the Ontario airport Saturday night but might have to rearrange his work schedule depending on her arrival.
"She's grounded in Chicago and probably excited to spend more time with her sister," Wilson said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Not meant to fly': Passengers describe standstill in airports across US
