US Federal Aviation Administration lifts nationwide flight ground stop

The US Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop at airports Friday after a telecommunications outage prompted authorities to halt flights as a precaution.

The agency had issued the ground stop alert Friday evening following what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described as a "communication issue," triggering an hours-long suspension of flights across the US.

The suspension affected flights across the US before the aviation regulator lifted the alert.

Speaking at a news conference at the White House, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the public had not been endangered during the incident.

"I just want to reiterate this: the public was never at danger through this process," Mullin told reporters.

"There was no flights at risk. FAA was able to handle it. We did it out of an abundance of caution," he added.

Duffy, for his part, described the incident as "an emergency."