Air Traffic Control Outage Grounds Flights Across Nine Midwest States

A major equipment failure at a Minneapolis air traffic control facility knocked out radar and radio communications for roughly two hours on Thursday, forcing ground stops and diversions at airports across nine Midwestern states and leaving aircraft in flight temporarily unable to reach controllers.

The outage struck the Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center, a facility that manages high-altitude traffic across roughly 330,000 square miles, ABC News reported. The center handles flights to and from airports in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and both Dakotas.

The Federal Aviation Administration said radar and communications systems later came back online, but disruptions persisted at several airports through the evening, according to ABC News. Delays at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport averaged 90 minutes on Thursday evening, and delays continued at airports in Michigan, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin and the Dakotas.

The facility degraded to a status known as ATC Zero at around 2 p.m. local time, meaning it was unable to provide any control services at all, according to the aviation outlet Aerohaber. Aircraft already airborne relied on backup systems, including onboard collision avoidance equipment and direct communication with airline operations centers, until the center was restored.

The blackout affected only high-altitude, long-range airspace. Aircraft that had descended into airspace managed by the Minneapolis tower were able to land under normal procedures.

The FAA has not released technical details of what caused the failure, and an investigation is underway.

The incident is the latest in a series of technology failures across the American air traffic system. Controllers guiding aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport lost radar and radio contact twice in 2025. One of those outages occurred during a busy afternoon and led to more than a thousand canceled and delayed flights after several controllers took extended leave, CNN reported at the time.