The ground stop has stopped.
Friday’s sudden, and objectively concerning, decision by the FAA to issue only the second nationwide order to keep all planes from flying since 9/11 has ended.
The situation should result in no impact on NFL teams traveling to their road games for Sunday. It also should allow college teams to get to wherever they need to go for Saturday.
If it had happened one day later, the end result could have created chaos for NFL teams, significantly delaying their travel and turning their schedules for the night before the game upside down.
The situation came as a surprise to some NFL teams. For example, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan learned about it during his Friday press conference.
Asked about the ground stop impacting the team’s plans for travel to Dallas on Saturday based on the ground stop, Shanahan said, “When did they do that?”
He also asked, “Why’d they do that?”
Eventually, Shanahan said, “I didn’t know. I just first heard.”
The 49ers plan to leave San Francisco at 1:00 p.m. PT on Saturday. Ten other teams will be traveling on Saturday, too.