As FAA grounds all flights, Southern California travelers cancel trips or find new ways home

Many Southern California travelers spent considerable time sitting on unmoving planes Friday. Others, though, didn’t make it past their gates.

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights nationwide Friday afternoon because of communications problems at regional air traffic control centers. The incredibly rare ground stop, the FAA said, was being imposed “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”

Related: Flights halted at airports across US due to air traffic control communications problems

Irvine residents Calvin Leong and his wife, Marjorie Leong, were set to depart from John Wayne Airport to Seattle for a weekend family event. They got to the airport around 12:30 p.m. and had lunch ahead of their 2 p.m. departure.

But about five minutes after arriving at their gate, their pilot announced the ground stop, Calvin Leong said.

“It’s a Friday, so with everything I said: ‘Let’s go home and watch football!’ But football teams probably cannot get to the games,” Calvin Leong said. “So tomorrow, we might have some canceled football games.”

Also canceled: the Leongs’ trip to the Pacific Northwest. After checking the news, the couple said they figured the issue likely wouldn’t be fully resolved until the time they’d be headed back home. Waiting to pick up their checked bags, they discussed the possibility of a follow-up trip to Seattle around Thanksgiving, but Calvin Leong said they’re not hopeful.

Meanwhile, Maria Picuri Gress realized she was going to miss her son’s surprise birthday party.

The Corona Del Mar resident had planned to fly out of John Wayne to San Francisco around 11:15 a.m., plenty of time to make her son’s 25th birthday shindig. She was holding out hope that a flight would eventually make it out, and she could get there at the tail end of the party — but eventually acknowledged that wasn’t going to happen.

“I’m bummed,” Picuri Gress said. “I’m just trying to keep it all in perspective, that he’ll have a good time without his mom there, and I’m safe on the ground.”

Over at LAX, Cheyenne Hunt, an attorney from Orange County, sat on an already-delayed Alaska Airlines flight to Newark for about an hour, unmoving, while news of the ground stoppage came through.

“There was literally no information on what was going to happen,” Hunt, who was traveling for work, said. The pilot walked up and down the aisle telling passengers this stoppage was “unprecedented,” and “this doesn’t look good,” she said.

Eventually kicked off the plane, Hunt stood at 2 p.m. amid “hordes and hordes of people” in the crowded terminal, trying to figure out what was next — could they still be able to travel, would they need to get home, could they get their bags — when an airline employee interjected: The flight was officially canceled. Passengers should go collect their luggage.

Michelle Mehok was on a Southwest flight headed from Pittsburgh to San Diego International Airport when the grounding order was announced, and the plane rerouted to Ontario International Airport.

“We were told that the San Diego airport had been inundated with grounded flights and that we were coming to Ontario,” said Mehok, who lives near coastal Del Mar north of the city. “We were all curious as to what happened.”

She overheard other passengers aboard her jet calling to rent cars to drive to their destinations in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City or back to San Diego. A charter bus was headed to pick up the passengers at Ontario and drive them back down to San Diego. Mehok planned to take that transport.

Also at ONT was traveler Pilar Sterig, whose plans to hop on a midday Southwest direct flight back to Fort Worth were thwarted. At 2:30 p.m., Sterig was still waiting to pick up her luggage, which had been loaded onto the plane before the national order was issued and her flight canceled.

She’s worried that she won’t be able to get another flight out of ONT before Sunday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers.

“We don’t know how long this will last. I’m thinking about renting a car to drive back to Arlington (north of Fort Worth) for the game,” said Sterig, who was with her husband and two kids in the baggage claim area.

The rental car facility at ONT, though, ran out of cars to lease.

“This is the first time I’ve seen an empty lot at an airport. Period,” said Michael Coleman, a customer service representative with Hertz.

Rentals that typically are parked in reserved spots for Gold rewards members were moved to a back lot away from the public. The program lets members jump into a car and drive off without paperwork or other check-in procedures at a rental desk.

Names of 29 Gold members remained on a lighted board next to the rental lot, but Coleman said they wouldn’t be coming. These travelers were grounded elsewhere.

“There’s lots of names. They were supposed to get a car, but they won’t be today,” Coleman said.

Back at John Wayne, Natalie Bush and her two friends were set to fly home to Provo, Utah, when the group got two alerts nearly simultaneously: Their 5:30 p.m. flight was delayed by over an hour, and the FAA had grounded all flights.

They stopped checking their flight status and changed plans, joining a long, winding line of people waiting to speak to a Hertz representative.

Bush said the most pressing issue now was figuring out who would take the first leg of the drive home.

“It’s like 10 hours. So, a fun little road trip, I guess,” Bush said.

Nate Bailey, an eighth-grade language arts teacher at Slavens School in Denver, was stuck at LAX with about 80 students and other chaperones on an annual trip to Catalina Island. Their flight was canceled, and Bailey said teachers were in touch with school administrators to figure out what to do next.

“I’m sitting here waiting to see what we’re going to do,” Bailey said.

For Marilyn Lane and her daughter, a vacation that began with a 12-day cruise was supposed to continue in New Orleans. What she thought were just delays with Southwest at Long Beach Airport turned into a change of plans: The pair decided to check into a hotel Friday until, she said, they could figure out how to get back home to Indianapolis.

“Hopefully things will get better tomorrow, Lane said. “Safety is more important than anything.”

‘A wake-up call’

Hunt, too, said she was grateful she and her fellow travelers across the country were safe, but she hoped the situation would serve as a wake-up call for the Trump administration.

“I think we are living in the consequences of an administration that puts nepotism and friendship and cronyism over people who are competent in their jobs,” Hunt said in a phone interview from LAX. “We’ve seen a lot of issues with the FAA and technology and how these things are administered in the Trump administration.”

This is the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned. Before that, the last time had been after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

A sports headache

Calvin Leong wasn’t wrong about his sports speculation. The ground stop could create issues for Saturday’s college football schedule.

The USC football team was in the air when the stoppage went into effect and arrived in Indianapolis. The 18th-ranked Trojans will face No. 9 Indiana in a game that holds implications for the College Football Playoff race, at 12:30 p.m., Pacific Time, in Bloomington, Indiana.

No. 2 Utah, No. 6 Texas and No. 9 Tennessee were all at a standstill on Friday because of the ground stop.

Teams and officials for NBA, NHL and NFL games could also be delayed, forcing games to be rescheduled this weekend. The Rams are scheduled to play in Phoenix on Sunday, and the Chargers are scheduled to play in Baltimore on Monday night.

‘Can’t fathom it’

Throughout Friday, local airports encouraged passengers to check with their airlines for the latest flight info.

Buena Park resident and concerned father John Anderson spent the afternoon “watching TV, listening to all the major outlets” for updates on grounded flights.

His daughter and son-in-law, both in their mid-20s, are in Cabo San Lucas for a wedding. The couple was scheduled to fly back on Alaska Airlines, arriving at LAX on Friday evening.

“I should’ve been on the road about now to pick them up,” Anderson said.

“They’re just waiting to get a heads-up. I don’t think they’re moving,” Anderson said. “I suggested maybe if Mexico’s up and running that they can just fly to Tijuana, and I can pick them up in San Diego.”

Ultimately, the couple decided to wait for updates from their resort, Anderson said.

“It’s amazing to me that we have 50 states, a big country, and we’re grounded,” Anderson said, laughing. “I can’t fathom it.”

The Leongs finally received their bags at John Wayne at 5 p.m.

They had spent more time waiting for their bags than they did in the airport before when their flight was supposed to leave, and about as long as their flight to Seattle would have lasted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.