(Bloomberg) — Flights out of airports on the U.S. West Coast were briefly halted by aviation regulators as a precaution on Monday after North Korea launched a high-speed missile in a test.
The so-called ground stop, which paused departures from an unspecified number of airports, lasted less than 15 minutes.
North Korea’s missile flew at almost 10 times the speed of sound into waters off its eastern coast, ratcheting up tensions in the region and with the U.S.
The Federal Aviation Administration issues ground stops routinely to ensure airports and high-altitude flight paths remain orderly. They can occur for weather, volcanic eruptions or any number of reasons. On Monday afternoon, for example, the FAA ordered a brief halt to flights in the central region of the U.S. as a result of aircraft volume related to the college football championship game in Indianapolis.
The FAA didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether it has halted flights before as a result of North Korea missile launches.
“We are reviewing the process around this ground stop as we do after all such events,” the agency said in the statement.
The military’s U.S. Indo-Pacific Command issued a statement Monday night that the launch didn’t “pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory.”
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