SAN FRANCISCO — If you are flying this weekend, call your airline before you call a ride.
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights across the country Friday afternoon for more than four hours. The ground stop began about 1:15 p.m. and was lifted Friday evening. The trouble did not end when the planes started moving again.
What it did here
San Francisco International Airport had dozens of cancellations. Oakland’s airport had at least 11 by late afternoon. San Jose had nearly two dozen. All three had long delays, and airport officials said travelers should expect more of them through the weekend.
It landed on top of Friday’s storm, which had already slowed flights into San Francisco.
What caused it
The FAA called it a temporary telecommunications outage affecting air traffic control centers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed old equipment that became overloaded and said the system needs billions of dollars to modernize.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of a cyberattack, and that officials were still investigating.
What to do
Check your flight with the airline before you leave home. Secretary Duffy said it will take time for the system to get back to full capacity. If you are picking somebody up, check the arrival time too. A flight that left on time may still be waiting on a crew or a plane that got stuck somewhere else Friday.
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