Flights grounded in US due to communication and safety issues

Some 15,000 flights were grounded in the US, with officials pinning the situation on an antiquated air traffic control system that caused "intermittent" communications and radar gaps, marking

the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years.

This left tourists stranded at airports and the sports world in chaos as teams scrambled to reach their destinations in time for weekend games.

This was the scene at Miami- Fort Lauderdale Friday. Planes grounded.

A similar scene in Houston, Texas after the Federal Administration's decision to ground all flights nationwide as of 3.36pm Eastern Time after the air traffic control system overloaded while it was being upgraded causing safety and communication problems.

These European tourists were stranded in Las Vegas. Tourist Busra Yavuz said "Yeah we finished our trip so we actually have to fly to Germany to Dusseldorf.

Everything cancelled and we just locked up here. So we went to the gates and one of the personnel there, they said to us that the flights are cancelled."

The Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said Friday there has not been any indication of the incident being related to a cyberattack.

Markwayne Mullin, US Secretary of Homeland Security said "Welcome to Friday the 13th right? You know I wanna make sure everybody understands that there is no connection between this

and Microsoft. I know a lot of people are making that jump. This is so far what we've seen, there is actually no cyberattack."

Mullins also calmed public fears saying there was no indications of an attack against the nation, as the last time all flights were grounded was during the 9-11 attacks on New York,

Virginia and Pennsylvania in 2001.

The air space reopened at 8:15pm Eastern Time although passengers were warned operations would take time to return to normal.