Local
FAA Ground Stop Lifted, but Sea-Tac Travelers Face Cancellations, Lost Bags, and Lingering Chaos
A nearly four-and-a-half-hour FAA ground stop on Friday, triggered by a failure in aging communication systems, continued to disrupt flights at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Saturday, leaving passengers stranded, rebooking, and in some cases swearing off air travel.
SEATAC, Wash. â Travelers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport faced a second day of chaos on Saturday after a rare, nearly four-and-a-half-hour nationwide ground stop ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday continued to ripple through airline schedules.
The FAA halted most flights Friday after routine maintenance on aging systems disrupted air traffic controllers' ability to communicate with aircraft. The ground stop was lifted later that day, but its effectsâcanceled connections, misplaced luggage, and frustrated passengersâpersisted into the weekend.
Laquanta Day, who said she was on her first-ever plane trip this week, arrived in Seattle without issue but learned her connecting flight had been canceled. "It was a big scare. I was kind of wondering like, what was going on?" Day said Saturday. "I'm thinking like something really bad happened. Like, why did they cancel my plane?"
Day said the experience has soured her on flying, at least for now. She was waiting for her husband to drive from Montana to pick her up. "No more planes for me," she insisted. "No more planes, I'll catch a train. It's already on the ground. It won't be grounded."
Ryan Nobriga was on the tarmac in Chicago when the ground stop was issued. "I was literally on the tarmac when it all happened," he said. His flight taxied back to the gate, and he rebooked to Seattle, where he was searching baggage claim for his luggage. "Here I am trying to find my bags and, hopefully, they're here. It doesn't look like they're there," Nobriga said. His bags were apparently misplaced during the disruption. He still planned to fly to Hawaii on Sunday.
William Cromwell was weighing whether to rebook his family's canceled flight to Sacramento. "Basically, we have to either stay two days [to fly out] or rent a car, drive all the way down, then hopefully get reimbursed from the travel agency," Cromwell said.
The ground stop highlighted the vulnerability of the nation's air traffic control system, which relies on aging infrastructure. The FAA has faced longstanding warnings about the need to modernize its technology. For travelers at Sea-Tac, the immediate concern was simply getting to their destinationsâand, for some, recovering their belongings.
As of Saturday, airline schedules remained out of sync, and passengers were advised to check with their carriers before heading to the airport.