FAA ground stop impacts flights at Dulles International Airport

And we continue to follow that nationwide breaking news, a ground stop affecting every single airport across the country, an air traffic control communication issue causing all these problems at this hour. We're taking a live look right now at Reagan National Airport that we want to get you to our Homa Bash, who is live now at Washington Dulles Airport with everything she is seeing. Homa, what can you tell us? Hey guys, I want you to take a look at this flight board right behind me. So when we got here just a little bit ago, most of these flights were delayed. Now these delays are turning into cancellation. I just counted 15 on the board, flights to Buffalo, Charlottesville, Dayton, Ithaca, Norfolk, a lot of those smaller airports now switching from delayed to canceled. A lot of the delays are showing that they're delayed between 6 to 9 p.m. And right now when we're talking to people, a lot of what we're hearing is they have no idea what's going on. Thank you very much. You know what? I really wanted to talk to you because of this cutie here. Hi. One thing when you're delayed is very, the most important thing really is snacks. It's snacks. It's snacks. How are you feeling right now, not really knowing what's going on? A little bit stressed. You know, this is the first time we're traveling with two little ones, and it's a big family vacation to meet some family internationally. We're distressed and we hope we can get on the flight. And the thing with international flights is everything depends on making that connection because otherwise you're stranded in the country, right, for who knows how many hours. And these flights to India, oftentimes they're once a day, so you might be stranded for another 24 to 48 hours. Yeah, I really hope not because they're... A two-year-old and not even a one-year-old, so we need to survive. Props to you, Mama. You're doing a good job. Have they told you anything at this point from the airline? I just got a text saying that it is delayed. The flight is at 8 p.m., so we'll see. Okay, so the delayed flight is now at 8 p.m.? No, the flight is at 8 p.m. They sent us a message just saying the flight is delayed now for operational reasons. Okay, but they didn't give you a time on when they might be taking off? No. Okay, well, at least you have helping hands here with your mom. I have my mother, so she's great. And we have our family coming, too, so it'll be a family affair. Well, hopefully you get out safely. Thank you, guys. But, you know, that's kind of the sentiment here. People are stressed. Traveling is stressful in any case. And right now, when you don't know what's going on, you don't know when and if there will be an end to this tonight. Matthew, watch out. But turn around, just look at these lines right now. There are no flights getting in and out right now. People are on the phone, they're calling loved ones, they're trying to figure out, do I stay, do I go, do I wait this out? Still a lot of questions at this hour, guys. But for now, we will send it inside to you. Homa, we're going to hang out with you for a little bit, we're being told. Obviously, you know what it's like traveling with kids, so that's not ideal. But so many people with different circumstances, having to get places, etc. etc. Last time this happened, like we were talking about, it's pretty historic, right? You have September 11th, where obviously we had this ground stoppage for obvious reasons, and then 2023 for an alert system that went down. That was roughly a few hours that it was down. Unclear here how much longer we'll be in this process. And part of that reason is we don't know why. We had the Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mullins, saying that likely telecommunications. But right now, the administration nor Secretary Duffy have addressed as to why this continues at this hour. I'm curious, have you been able to see, I know you just got, go ahead. Well, you know, and when we're talking to people, they're not necessarily scared at this point. They're not worried for their safety, but they are concerned about their travel plans. Listen, you make, when you're flying out of Dulles, it is a big trip. Typically, you're going international, you're going somewhere that you planned for a long time. And even a little bit of a delay in that, again, it's going to impact your layover. It has this really big domino effect. Homa, I'm curious. I know you just got there. It looks like a lot of people just sort of loitering around behind you, making phone calls, trying to get information. Does it look like folks are still even attempting to get through TSA to the gates? Are they even letting folks through right now? Yeah. Yeah, they are. They are letting people through TSA. People are going through security on the other side of these centers. We're in the area where you check in for your international flight, where you get your passport checked and you check your bags. Some of the people I talked to said like, for example, American Airlines wasn't letting them check in bags, wasn't dealing with them at all until this is straightened out. And their flight was here in like an hour or so. So they were told just hang tight, hang out here. Other people, you can see they're just I'm just waiting in line. This is Qatar Airlines, for example. The line has grown and ebbed and flowed while we've been out here, so clearly they are doing something. But still, you know. The gate agents don't know. The staff doesn't know. We really don't know where to go from here. Yeah, the last official reporting from the FAA is official account about a half hour ago saying that a temporary telecommunications outage out of an abundance of caution. All flights have been halted. Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis, which makes sense based on what we're hearing from passengers who are not being canceled right now. They're being delayed, I would assume, in the hopes that things can restart. Working with a TSA director who worked out of LAX Homa, an airport, a large international airport, you know, you could say that IAD is comparable there. The domino effect here to get things back online, this is not something where it's a switch, right? Okay, we're back online and, wow, we can get all these flights in and out. I would imagine the sense from passengers is the same, that we're in here for the long haul if we're delayed. Yeah, the flight schedule is so tightly packed, right? You're trying to get a lot of these international flights out. They're red eyes, essentially, trying to get overseas, trying to make their connection, trying to get to their next stop. That's why a lot of those smaller airports, when I'm looking at the flight board, a lot of those smaller airports were immediately canceled. Some of the bigger ones, it seems like they're still holding on hope that they will get flights up and running, perhaps by 7, 8, 9, 10 p.m. I just talked to somebody who has an overnight flight out of here at 10 p.m. He said, I've got no communication, not from the airline, not from Dulles. Clearly, they're just hoping that that, you know, by that time, things are back to normal. But there are going to be ramifications, right? Of course. Like, there's going to be a big domino effect here. There's going to be, I think, probably a substantial domino effect. And the woman you spoke to, your friend, I think her name was Rachel, pretty positive spirits there, especially for having two little ones, but as this continues to drag on, depending Depending on the time of how long this goes on. You're probably going to see those moods change. And that's, again, for folks who are presumably at home, maybe going somewhere, but you think about the folks who are in the air as this happened or, you know, people are going to have to wait potentially days to get where they're going. It might shift. Part of the reason is not knowing, right? Are we getting delayed? Are we canceled? Can we go home? Do we stay home? I don't know how far you are from the arrival boards. We've heard that some of these planes and flights are being allowed to land. We had seen pictures from BWI where flights were landing, and I'm not sure if that's happening there at Dulles International. Yeah, when we were driving up right now, getting up to the departure level was fairly easy. Getting down to arrivals and baggage claim was clogged. I mean, traffic backed up for miles coming into Dulles here, and I think that is a lot of people who are arriving, trying to get loved ones home, perhaps rideshare drivers trying to get people home and out of here. So there were flights that were landing. I'm not sure of what the last one that landed here at Dulles is or if they're still allowing arrivals to come in. If you're in the air, you've got to go somewhere, right, at some point. You're going to run out of fuel. But right now, no flights are taking off. And you can see that is becoming really problematic. And like you said, moods right now, they're okay. People were expecting to be at the airport for a couple of hours or a few hours waiting for an international flight. Now, if that turns into many, many more hours, well, at some point you run out of snacks, guys. Yeah, you do run out of snacks. And I just want to read really quickly. I was mentioning to Marina in break. My friend in Philadelphia was the second plane to take off. She was heading to Nashville, and she said that her pilot came on and said, we're told no departures from Philly. It's not weather. We don't know what it is. He said, we're going back to the gate, continues on, sounds legitimately panicked, and says, folks, I don't know what's going on. It's a nationwide ground stop. I'm just glad we got a gate because every aircraft is scrambling now for a gate. So obviously a lot that's happening on the plane is about to take off, certainly ones in the air. Homa, thank you. We know we will check back in with you later as this continues.