The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop for all flights Friday afternoon, according to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.

Roughly a dozen commercial flights set to depart from the Santa Barbara Airport on Friday were affected.

In a social media post, Duffy said there was a “communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.”

He said administrative technicians were investigating.

“We will provide immediate updates as we have them,” he wrote.

The FAA posted a social media message citing a “temporary telecommunications outage” and said all flights have been halted “out of an abundance of caution.”

A spokesperson added: “Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis.”

The Santa Barbara Airport confirmed the ground stop on all departing flights and said travelers should check directly with their airline for flight information.

City of Santa Barbara spokesperson Bryan Latchford told Noozhawk that the FAA has not announced when airports can resume normal operations.

At about 5:15 p.m. PST, the FAA announced that the ground stop had been lifted, but the disruption caused by hundreds of cancelled and delayed flights was expected to ripple through flight schedules for at least a couple days.

At 6:16 p.m., a Delta Airlines flight that was scheduled to leave at 12:45 p.m. took off for Salt Lake City.

Because of that, “continued delays and cancellations are expected,” he said.

College student Amalia Benito told Noozhawk she was set to depart from the Santa Barbara Airport on Friday to San Diego.

She said she was heading home to visit her family and friends on a 2:30 p.m. Alaska Airlines flight.

“I think people are trying to figure out what is going on, but nobody really knows,” she said.

She said she was concerned that her flight would get canceled and that she was not planning to wait out the delay.

Connor Koza, a Ventura resident who was set to take a Southwest flight to Vegas out of the Santa Barbara Airport, told Noozhawk that his flight was originally scheduled for 3:15 p.m. and that it was delayed.

Airlines representatives had limited information, he said.

Ventura resident Victoria Paolini told Noozhawk that she was set to take a flight from Santa Barbara to Texas, with a layover in Denver, on United Airlines on Friday.

She said airline representatives told her her flight would “probably” be canceled, so she rebooked her flight for Saturday morning.

“It could maybe get out really late tonight, but I have a connection I was gonna miss,” she said.

It was not immediately clear whether the order also impacted non-commercial flights.

A Santa Maria Public Airport District spokesperson told Noozhawk there were no flights set to depart from the airport on Friday.

Colin Brady, a lineman with the Santa Ynez Valley Airport, told Noozhawk that one medical helicopter took off from the airport on Friday to transport a person to the hospital in Santa Maria.

But beyond that, the weather “is so bad” up in the Valley that there were no flights taking off, he said.

Information about whether the order impacted Lompoc flights was not immediately available.

The San Luis Obispo County Airport, which does offer commercial flights, was also impacted.

This is a developing story. Check back with Noozhawk for updates.

Noozhawk reporter Daniel Green contributed reporting.