Salt Lake City airport activates emergency operations amid FAA ground stop

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's largest airport has activated its emergency operations center to help communicate with airline passengers affected by a federal ground stop issued Friday afternoon.

Federal airline officials ordered the ground stop because of a "communication issue impacting all air route traffic control centers," according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Federal Aviation Administration technicians are investigating the issue, he said, but it's unclear how long it will take until flights are allowed to take off again.

Planes have been able to land, but no planes are allowed to take off, Salt Lake City International Airport spokeswoman Nancy Volmer told KSL.

Airport officials confirmed it was impacted shortly after 2 p.m., adding that it doesn't have an estimated time for service to resume. The airport emergency operations center aims to assist passengers whose flights were supposed to take off, whether that's food or other accommodations.

"Not knowing how long this will last, we want to make sure those needs are taken care of in the long run," she said, recommending that passengers with flights later Friday or this weekend should talk with their airline before heading to the airport.

"When something like this happens, there's typically a domino effect, especially across the nation," she added. "Once flights begin taking off again, there are going to continue to be delays until we're able to catch up."

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