FAA Lifts Nationwide Ground Stop After Four-Hour Communications Outage Grounds US Flights

The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop late on Friday 13 November 2026, allowing flights to depart again across the United States after a telecommunications outage at air traffic control centres halted departures for more than four hours. The stoppage, the first nationwide halt since January 2023, delayed more than 10,000 flights and forced airlines to cancel over 4,000, according to FlightAware figures cited by CBS News.

FAA Ground Stop — Quick Reference Summary

A Friday afternoon halt that froze departures nationwide

The FAA ordered the stop after communications problems struck regional air traffic control centres, the facilities that guide aircraft between airports. In a post on X, the agency described a “temporary telecommunications outage” and said that, as a precaution, all flights were being halted. The communication issue affected all 22 air route traffic control centres across the country. Flights already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations, and international flights were initially handled case by case. At the moment the order was issued, 4,042 flights were airborne and heading to US airports, according to Flightradar24. Flights within Alaska and Hawaii were not affected.

Thousands of flights delayed, diverted or cancelled

The scale of the disruption grew through the evening as aircraft and crews ended up out of position. Flightradar24 recorded more than 4,700 cancellations on Friday, with another 700 flights already cancelled for Saturday. Aviation analytics company Cirium counted at least 600 diverted flights by 5:50pm Eastern Time. Around 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers had been scheduled to depart US airports after 4pm Eastern on Friday. Delta Air Lines issued a travel waiver for affected passengers, and airlines warned that restoring normal schedules could take days rather than hours.

The disruption in numbers

No sign of a cyberattack as investigators hunt for the cause

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters there was no indication that the outage was caused by a deliberate attack or a threat to the United States. The FBI does not believe a cyberattack or criminal activity caused the failure, Bloomberg reported, citing an official familiar with the matter. The Department of Homeland Security said there were no signs the outage was caused by a cyberattack. US authorities have yet to determine the exact cause of the telecommunications outage. Early reporting pointed to ageing air traffic control technology and overloaded routers and circuits, with network equipment overload rather than a total system failure behind the instability. Air Space Intelligence, the company behind the FAA’s AI-powered air traffic management system, said its technology was not responsible for the ground stop.

Why normal schedules will take days to return

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the disruption began at 3:36pm ET, when radar and communication systems at air traffic control centres and terminal radar approach control facilities became unstable. “We had over 3,500 aeroplanes in the air,” Duffy said, adding that all of them landed safely. Critical flights continued throughout the stop, including medical evacuations, cargo carrying essential medicines and law enforcement movements. Even with departures resuming, airlines face a long recovery because so many planes and crews are out of position. The FAA said the ground stop was issued “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety”.

Ageing systems under fresh scrutiny

The incident was the longest nationwide shutdown of flight departures since the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to Reuters. The only other nationwide ground stop since then came in January 2023, when a malfunction in the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions system halted domestic departures for around 90 minutes. The latest failure will renew pressure on Washington over the state of the country’s air traffic control infrastructure. Officials have yet to say when a full account of what failed will be published, or what fixes will follow.

Frequently asked questions

Q: How long did the FAA ground stop last? A: Just over four hours. It was issued at 3:54pm ET on Friday 13 November 2026 and lifted at 8:15pm ET the same day.

Q: How many flights were affected? A: More than 10,000 flights were delayed and over 4,000 cancelled, according to FlightAware figures cited by CBS News. At least 600 flights were diverted.

Q: Was the outage caused by a cyberattack? A: No evidence of a cyberattack has been found. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have both said there is no indication of malicious activity.

Q: Why were flights already in the air allowed to land? A: The ground stop applied to departures only. Aircraft already airborne were permitted to continue to their destinations, and all were accounted for.

Q: When will flights return to normal? A: Airlines warned it could take several days to restore schedules, because aircraft and crews were left out of position across the country.