Flights at the Santa Barbara airport have been grounded as part of a national ground stoppage by the Federal Aviation Administration.
“All flights are grounded right now,” said Santa Barbara City Administrator Kelly McAdoo.
Currently four aircraft are unable to leave, 1 Delta plane, 2 United planes, and 1 American Airlines plane.
McAdoo said there were other flights scheduled inbound, and that “depending on length of stoppage, that number will grow.”
The FAA put out a release that said all flights have been grounded “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”
The statement said there was a “communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers,” and that FAA technicians are investigating the problem.
It was a confusing scene at the Santa Barbara Airport Friday afternoon.
Antar Abderrahman, from Ventura, who was sending off his girlfriend on a flight to Vegas, was looking up at the flight dashboard to see when her plane was taking off. “Not a word” of information was given to him about the recent FAA notice.
Joby Yobe and Nydia Ramirez were supposed to be on a 3:15 p.m. flight to Las Vegas.
“Now, we’re just seeing if we should drive seven hours,” Yobe said. He added that he was notified about the delays an hour ago, but has been given no information from his airline about when he’d be able to fly next.
Two airline employees said that they are unaware of when flights will resume, but were initially told 7 p.m.
McAdoo said Airport Director Chris Hastert was on the scene gathering information about the impacts of the stoppage.
“We are still waiting on details,” McAdoo said.
All flights were grounded on Sept. 11, 2001 in response to the terrorists attacks. Most recently flights were temporarily grounded in 2023 after a pilot notification system went down.
Check back to newspress.com for more information to this breaking news report.
News-Press reporter Aston Smith contributed to this report.
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