Minneapolis Air Traffic Control Outage Halts Midwest Flights For Two Hours

Air traffic controllers lost all radar and radio contact with aircraft across a nine-state region Thursday afternoon when the Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center experienced what officials described as an equipment malfunction, according to a report from Simple Flying.

The facility degraded to 'ATC Zero' status around 2:00 PM local time, rendering controllers unable to manage flights across Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, and Iowa—a zone spanning roughly 330,000 square miles. Aircraft already airborne were reportedly forced onto alternative flight paths and diverted to airports outside the affected region, while departures faced ground stops across the Midwest.

Services were restored after approximately two hours, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed in a Thursday evening statement, though the agency has not disclosed technical details about what caused the telecommunications and navigation systems to fail. Cascading delays continued well into the evening, with wait times ranging from 90 minutes to more than three hours as airlines worked to reposition crews and aircraft.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the region's largest hub, recorded 87 departure delays in the immediate aftermath of the outage. By Friday morning, operations had returned to normal, with weekend travelers expected to encounter typical conditions. Local reporting indicated the telecommunications failure extended beyond aviation infrastructure, disrupting cellular and internet services across the Twin Cities metropolitan area and affecting multiple government and public services.

Many passengers at MSP reportedly did not notice significant disruptions to their travel plans, though those headed to Great Lakes destinations experienced the most severe impacts. The FAA has opened an investigation into the cause of the outage.