National aviation and complex litigation attorney Hunter J. Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik issued the following statement today following the Federal Aviation Administration’s extraordinary decision to order a nationwide ground stop affecting departing aircraft across the United States.

The FAA announced that the measure was imposed because of “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” directing departing aircraft to remain on the ground until further notice and indicating that inbound international flights would be managed on a case-by-case basis. 

“This is an extraordinary aviation event. A nationwide FAA ground stop is fundamentally different from the localized weather or airport-specific ground stops travelers encounter from time to time. When federal aviation authorities determine that circumstances require aircraft throughout the nation to remain on the ground, safety must come first.”

Early reports have pointed to equipment, communications and air traffic control frequency problems affecting multiple facilities, although federal authorities have not yet publicly established the definitive cause of the nationwide event.

Shkolnik cautioned against drawing conclusions about responsibility before the technical facts are established.

“The immediate priority is the safe management of the National Airspace System. The next questions will be what happened, when federal aviation officials first became aware of the problem, what systems were affected, whether redundant systems operated as designed, and what measures will be necessary to prevent a recurrence.”

Shkolnik added, “America’s aviation system depends on layers of technology, communications, air traffic control personnel and redundancy working together. Today’s unprecedented disruption illustrates just how important the reliability and resilience of that infrastructure is. Once the immediate safety issue has passed, the public deserves a clear accounting of what occurred.”

Passengers affected by the disruption should monitor communications directly from their airlines and airports and retain records concerning cancellations, delays and additional expenses while the situation develops.

Hunter J. Shkolnik is a partner at Napoli Shkolnik and represents plaintiffs in complex litigation involving aviation, catastrophic injuries, product liability, mass torts and other major matters.