FAA lifts nationwide ground stop after communications failure strands th…

Communications failure triggers first nationwide stop since 2023

The FAA ordered the ground stop Friday afternoon, citing "extraordinary circumstances" caused by communications problems at regional air traffic control centers that direct planes between airports nationwide. It was the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned, and only the third since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the outage stemmed from outdated technology — "old switches, old routers" and "1980s little copper lines" — that became overloaded when a patchwork of newly installed modern technology began providing inconsistent data. "Many of our towers are almost 100 years old," Duffy said. "Our air traffic controllers have leaky roofs. Air conditioning doesn't work … their elevators don't work."

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the introduction of some new technology into the old air traffic control system overwhelmed it. Both officials ruled out a cyberattack or criminal activity. "There was never any lives at risk," Mullin said. "There was no flights at risk. FAA was able to handle it. We did it out of an abundance of caution."

The FBI is investigating whether a software update may have triggered the communication failure, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. Microsoft said it found no evidence connecting the ground stop to any of its services, including the Outlook disruption that occurred Thursday.

Detail	Information
Ground stop issued	Friday afternoon, Nov. 13, 2026
Ground stop lifted	Friday evening, Nov. 13, 2026
Previous nationwide ground stops	January 2023 (FAA computer malfunction); Sept. 11, 2001
Aircraft airborne at time of stop	3,500
Aircraft airborne later in event	Fewer than 400
Flights delayed (FlightAware, 7:30 p.m. ET)	10,079
Flights canceled (FlightAware, 7:30 p.m. ET)	4,238
Flights diverted (Cirium, 5:50 p.m. ET)	600 (496 returned to origin, 104 landed elsewhere)
Passengers scheduled to depart after 4 p.m. ET	More than 1.5 million
Estimated modernization cost (Mullin)	$50 billion
White House request to Congress	$30.1 billion for airport and ATC upgrades
Congress approved last year	$12.5 billion

Delays and cancellations cascade across the system

By 7:30 p.m. Eastern, FlightAware recorded 10,079 U.S.-related delays and 4,238 cancellations, significantly higher than Thursday's 6,800 delays and 1,024 cancellations, and Wednesday's 3,424 delays and 99 cancellations. FlightRadar24 spokesperson Ian Petchenik said more than 2,400 flights had been canceled by 7 p.m. ET and the number was "rising rapidly."

Aviation analytics firm Cirium reported 600 flights diverted as of 5:50 p.m. ET. Of those, 496 returned to their departure airports and 104 landed elsewhere. Chicago O'Hare received the highest number of diversions at 28, followed by Denver with 26 and Dallas/Fort Worth with 19.

Some 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers were scheduled to depart after 4 p.m. Eastern, raising the likelihood of further cancellations. JetBlue warned disruptions would continue into Saturday, including additional cancellations. The airline said only Europe-bound flights out of Boston Logan and New York's JFK would depart Friday night, and all flights to and from the U.S. Were canceled for the rest of the evening.

Delta Air Lines said it had begun safely resuming operations. United Airlines said international departures were being managed case by case. American Airlines expected disruptions for the rest of the day. Alaska Airlines said flights within Alaska and "neighbor island" flights in Hawaii were not impacted, and West Coast-to-Hawaii flights continued.

International ripple effects and cargo impacts

Eurocontrol halted all U.S.-bound flight departures from its 42 member states at the FAA's request, effective from 5 p.m. Eastern Friday until midnight. Mexico's federal aviation agency grounded all scheduled flights from Mexican airports headed to the U.S. Air Canada said flights between Canada, the Caribbean and South America that transit U.S. Airspace could also be affected.

San Francisco International Airport confirmed Pacific-bound flights, including services to Hawaii and Asia, received clearance to depart around 5 p.m. Eastern. Boston Logan said the FAA was permitting some transatlantic flights to depart.

The ground stop also halted cargo operations. FedEx, with nearly 700 aircraft shipping an average of 17 million packages and 20 million pounds of freight daily, activated contingency plans. U.S. Airlines move about 61,000 tons of goods daily to and from more than 220 countries, according to Airlines for America.

Sports teams, travelers caught in the backlog

The disruption scrambled a busy sports weekend. Most college football teams playing Saturday travel Friday; No. 2 Utah, No. 8 Texas and No. 9 Tennessee were among schools at a standstill. Five NBA teams, including the Nets, had flights halted. The NHL had 14 games scheduled Saturday; the Panthers reached St. Louis before the stop, but the Sharks were waiting to leave for Utah.

At Chicago O'Hare, travelers watched departure boards turn red. Seattle software engineer Amber McQuilkin, who took a week off for the League of Legends world finals in New York, said: "There's not really any information being passed to me. I contemplated just abandoning the flight and driving, but then the more I thought about it, the more I'm like, that would be miserable."

Ron Schoenbaum, diverted to Kansas City en route to Fort Lauderdale, spent nearly an hour on hold with American Airlines. "I can't even get a hotel room because I don't know if the flight's going to be pushed 'til tomorrow, so I just got to wait at the airport," he said. Singer Vivir Quintana was stuck in Las Vegas after the Latin Grammys, missing a performance in Mexico City.

Congress pressed for funding as investigations begin

Duffy and Mullin called on Congress to authorize billions for a complete overhaul. Duffy blamed Congress for failing to fund a new system that could prevent such outages. Since Congress approved $12.5 billion last year, miles of copper wire have been replaced with fiber and old radio systems are being gradually replaced, but the White House is lobbying for another $30 billion to complete the work. Mullin estimated a $50 billion price tag for full modernization.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, said the panel would examine technology problems involving aircraft communication systems, including primary and backup frequencies. "Technology issues related to how planes communicate through primary frequencies, backup frequencies, and other issues will be something the Commerce Committee will be reviewing," she said.

The FAA's SMART system, an AI-powered tool based near Washington that analyzes flight schedules, weather and other data, was not involved, according to Homeland Security and the system's designer, ASI. "The current ground stop is not based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA and ATC," ASI said.

SpaceX's 15th uncrewed Starship launch from Texas proceeded because flight restrictions around the launch site were already in place before the ground stop. The mission reached orbit, though the booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico instead of returning to the launch pad.

A student pilot at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport was left to land alone during the outage. "I don't know what to do," the pilot told controllers. Controllers advised the student to land at Hicks Airfield, about 15 miles northwest.

Duffy said restoring normal operations would be slow. "Is this exact thing going to happen again? I don't, I don't know that this exact scenario will happen," he told reporters. The FAA and FBI investigations into the root cause continue.