not sure why this keeps happening, it may have started during the last update. Basically the map starts to zoom in but then everything freezes. Loading circle doesn’t move, but music still plays. I have to use task manager to shut it down. Has this happened to anyone else?
Came here looking for others reporting this. For me it’s happening a little earlier. I select a plane, maybe run Configuration to change registration, livery, etc. Then I ensure live weather is on, no air traffic, multiplayer set to all, then select my departure point (normally a GA parking spot) and then hit the start flight button and the whole sim just locks up. Occasionally I’ve seen it go past that, and then just hang on the loading screen where the camera is looking down on the airport. Seems like it’s gotten more frequent in the last week, especially in the last couple of days. I’ve disabled all add-ons to no avail. Something feels seriously wrong.
Same here! Tonight I attempted it 4 times, rebooting pc each time. Press “Start flight” and map zooms in above airport and timer just spins indefinitely. This is new behaviour that stops game entirely! Must be a major server issue.
Aww, come on already! 
Today it’s still doing the same darn thing, still freezes at “Start Flight”. So for all intense and purposes, after the hundreds and hundreds of bugs throughout all the versions and updates over 35 yrs that somehow we all got thru, this is the worst one ever in my 35 years of flight simming because I cannot even start it. So is it all OVER for me? Thanks Asobo! 
I don’t know if you have seen this support article, it is kind of general, but if you are still having issues, it may be some help.
https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/17268168854044-Loading-issues
A lot of those steps aren’t possible on PS5 
Tags updated to include PS
Good info! It may be a clock time issue, I will check. I notice that some regions did not change clocks to Standard time. I finally got it to start by not doing a fp on SimBrief. If I just Start in Free Flight with no plan, it loads! Bizarre!