Mediaite reports U.S. travelers were shocked as plane flights across the nation were suddenly grounded. In an unprecedented move, The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that it was halting all departing flights “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” More than 5,000 delays and 319 cancellations immediately followed the halt, but reporters predicted the mess would have a cascading effect as delays caused still more delays and cancellations.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin spoke to reporters soon after the flight freeze, but the information he presented was piecemeal and said nothing of the duration of the nationwide flight shutdown, or the exact cause of it. This afternoon, Mullins was not even willing to rule out cyberattacks.
But angry Friday travelers were already looking for a target, according to MS NOW, and many of them were singling out President Donald Trump.
MS NOW correspondent Eugene Daniels was himself trapped at an airport in California, and caught the worst of passengers’ anger.
“As I’ve walked and talked with people who recognized us from MS [NOW] what they would say to me was they are shocked that they have not heard from the president in front of the camera,” said Daniels. “… Obviously, we heard from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin but folks are looking to hear more information from the leader of the free world, as this is shaking out.”
Daniels added: “One person told me that they were ‘disturbed’ that there wasn’t a lot of information coming from this administration.”
As of 6:15 p.m. Friday, Mediaite reports the president had issued two Truth Social posts: one about the Coast Guard and another about the film industry.
“I am working with Senator Tim Scott and, believe it or not, Senator Adam Schiff, and, additionally, Senators John Cornyn, Raphael Warnock, Steve Daines, Bernie Moreno, Tim Sheehy, Alex Padilla, Mark Warner, Thom Tillis, Chris Coons, Katie Britt, and Dick Durbin, together with Representatives Jason Smith, Nathaniel Moran, Brian Jack, Linda Sanchez, and many others, both Republican and Democrat, on the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act,” wrote Trump, seemingly heedless of the chaos at airports. "... Everyone feels strongly about the Motion Picture and Television Industry — and so do I, and we all want to save it. It was MADE IN AMERICA, and must STAY IN AMERICA."
And “chaos” is what it was, according to CNN reporter Richard Quest.
“It means chaos right now,” said Quest. “Everything is staying on the ground. Those planes that are in the air have to land for fuel reasons but any international traffic, if you look at the flight corridors, there's an enormous number of late afternoon flights from Europe. There are overnight flights from Asia, flights coming up from the Caribbean, all of which will have to be dealt with on a one-by-one case-by-case basis.”
Quest said planes were already lining up on airport taxiway that would have been preparing to depart, but which were not departing at the moment because of the ground stop.
“How long and how serious and what happens next is up to the gods because the FAA will not release the traffic until they are sure they have a handle on the air traffic corridors,” said Quest. “This is going to be chaos for hours to come simply on the basis that you've got people on planes that are taxied out, you've got people boarding aircraft that are now going to be disembarked, people that are arriving — and to add to the misery, planes may not arrive to take departing passengers later tonight. This is huge.”
