Washington football yet to board flight to East Lansing amid FAA ground stop -

University of Washington’s football team had not boarded its scheduled flight to East Lansing before the Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop Friday afternoon, leaving the Huskies’ arrival ahead of Saturday’s game against Michigan State uncertain.

Jeff Bechthold, Washington’s assistant athletic director for athletic communications, confirmed the team is awaiting its flight due to the stoppage.

“The team had not yet boarded its plane before the FAA grounded all flights. We await word, just like the rest of the country,” Bechthold wrote.

The FAA’s nationwide ground stop is only the third such instance in U.S. history, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and a January 2023 FAA computer system outage.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication the outage was the result of a malicious attack, describing it instead as “just a telecommunications outage.”

The advisory window for the stoppage lasts until 11:30 p.m. EST. There is no estimate of when flights will resume.

Washington has since returned to its Seattle campus after leaving Boeing Field and, according to The Athletic, has no plans yet for how to get to East Lansing.

MSU Athletics said in a statement that the university is in contact with the Big Ten Conference and Washington as it monitors the situation.

The developing situation raises questions about whether Washington will arrive by the scheduled 4:15 p.m. start time, and whether Saturday’s game will be affected.

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