Minnesota football flight grounded due to FAA national ground stop before Penn State game

Update, 7:30 p.m.:

Minnesota football still has not determined travel for Saturday’s Penn State-Minnesota game, a Golden Gophers spokesperson told Onward State.

“University of Minnesota football was on its charter flight about to leave for Penn State when the FAA national ground shutdown went into effect,” Paul Rovnak, Minnesota’s senior associate athletics director, told Onward State.

“As a result, the Gophers were unable to travel to Penn State on Friday for Saturday’s game. Minnesota has been in communication with the Big Ten and Penn State and will provide relevant updates as necessary.”

Original story:

Minnesota football’s flight from Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport to State College Regional Airport is grounded due to a nationwide layover issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), by Pete Thamel.

The FAA carried out a ground check in the United States on Friday shortly before 4 p.m.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin recently spoke to the media about the situation, attributing it to a widespread telecommunications outage affecting air traffic control centers.

The timetable for when air travel will resume remains uncertain, although officials have suggested the delay could last hours or even days. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the FAA will provide updates as they become available.

The Golden Gophers are scheduled to play Penn State on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Happy Valley.

The team’s private charter was scheduled to depart at 2:30 p.m. on a Sun Country Airlines flight, but FlightAware says the flight is still scheduled and has not yet departed.

If Minnesota is forced to drive to State College, Pennsylvania, the drive will take about 15 hours.

Other teams affected by the ground stop include Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas, Purdue, Washington, Oregon State, Wyoming, North Texas and all visiting ACC teams.

Minnesota did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication on its travel situation or plan if the flight could not take off in time for the game.

Jamie is a fourth-year economics student from Chappaqua, New York. He loves to swim and is a member of the club team here at Penn State. Jamie is also in the Schreyer Honors College and wishes there was an advanced course on college football fandom (scoring 118/133 on the mascot quiz). He is a ping-pong enthusiast, a lover of dairy products and has met two American presidents. If you have something to share or want to discuss the AP poll with someone, follow them on Twitter/X @jamielynchpsu or by email (email protected).