BOISE, Idaho — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a nationwide ground stop Friday, causing flights across the country to be canceled and delayed.
WATCH | FAA ground stop grounds flights nationwide, delaying and canceling travel at Boise Airport
The Boise Airport told me it received the ground stop order around 1:42 p.m. Friday afternoon. The order required all flights across the country to be grounded due to telecommunication issues impacting air traffic nationwide.
The ground stop caused almost all flights at the Boise Airport to be delayed or canceled. I spoke with several passengers while the ground stop was still in effect.
"I was kind of annoyed at it because they told us to stay on and then they said if we get off we can't get back on and then they kicked everyone off the plane after they told us to keep our seatbelts buckled. So that was a little annoying," Alayna O'Leary said.
RELATED | How the FAA ground stop is impacting Boise Airport
O'Leary tells us she was headed to Los Angeles and missed classes for this trip, but after the delay, she's not flying until Saturday morning.
Some said they had already missed their flight or were giving up on their plans.
Michelle Wilson was heading to a funeral with her kids.
"Well we're bummed because we're going for a funeral, so we're a little worried that we're not going to make our flight to the funeral. So we're just hanging out," Michelle Wilson explained.
Another neighbor said they were still waiting for confirmation about the scale of the flight cancellations.
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"We heard it was bad inside but we're just getting confirmation that it is, that that's what's going on by the front desk, and if not, we're just going to wait for our ride to go back home. It is what it is," Jodie Gonzalez said.
Still, others said they were hopeful their flights would still take off.
"Just confident that it's going to work out," Drake Rasmussen said.
Marco Pantalei told me he was on his way to a Las Vegas trip with his friends.
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"We were actually planning to just call it good and just re-plan the trip, but fortunately things came back to normal. I hope. We'll see," Michelle McAlister said.
The Boise Airport says passengers should continue to expect delays and cancellations as airlines work to restore their schedules. Passengers should also check with their airlines directly for their latest flight details.
Federal officials also confirm this was not a result of a cyber-attack and does not correlate with the Microsoft outage on Thursday.
