HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Hilton Head Island travelers flying out of the region’s main airport lost their Friday night plans when the Federal Aviation Administration halted departures across the country for several hours.
The FAA put the ground stop in place at about 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, pointing to communications trouble at regional air traffic control centers. Flights leaving Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport were caught up along with departures from airports nationwide, and the stop was not lifted until roughly 8:30 p.m.
Federal officials blamed a telecommunications outage and said nothing pointed to a cyberattack. The U.S. transportation secretary tied the failure to aging air traffic control equipment.
Cancellations left some local passengers looking for rides home or weighing whether to try again Saturday. Rental cars were hard to find at the airport Friday night as some travelers chose to drive to their destinations instead.
After departures resumed, the airport issued an updated advisory telling passengers to check with their airlines about the status of their flights. Delays were expected to linger as carriers worked through the backlog.
Anyone flying out this weekend should confirm flight times with the airline before leaving for the airport. The previous halt of flights across the whole country came nearly four years ago, in early 2023.
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