WASHINGTON — The US Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop on Friday after a communications failure at air traffic control centers caused chaos at airports and triggered the longest nationwide shutdown since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said US airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time (0115 GMT), but warned that departures would resume gradually and it would take time for airlines to restore normal operations. "It's going to be slow," Duffy told reporters at the White House. More than 6,600 flights were canceled and 8,600 delayed, with another 1,500 already canceled for Sunday, according to FlightRadar24. Aviation analysts said the four-hour nationwide grounding could disrupt airline schedules for days. Duffy said tens of thousands of passengers were stranded at airports around the country. Duffy said he and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss the outage. The failure is the latest and most dramatic sign of strain on a US air traffic control syste
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