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TL;DR
The FAA halted most departures nationwide on Nov. 13 after communications problems affected air traffic control facilities. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said overloaded legacy telecom equipment caused instability, while officials said they had seen no evidence of a cyberattack; a written root-cause report has not been published.
The Federal Aviation Administration halted departures at airports across the United States on Friday, Nov. 13, after communications problems affected air traffic control facilities, disrupting flights for about four hours. The FAA lifted the stop at about 8:16 p.m. Eastern Time, but officials have not published a written report explaining the failure’s root cause.
The FAA Command Center’s advisories show the disruption developing first around Chicago. At 3:21 p.m. ET, it cited equipment issues as it warned of arrival delays and airborne holding at O’Hare. The agency stopped departures to O’Hare at 3:28 p.m., then issued a similar stop for Chicago Midway at 3:31 p.m. The national order followed at 3:54 p.m.; its event time was listed as 3:53 p.m.
The FAA said the stop followed communications issues affecting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers and described its statement as preliminary. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said radar and communications at en route centers and approach control facilities became unstable. He attributed the problem to older analog telecom switches and routers that, in his account, were overloaded with data and delivered inconsistent information.
Duffy said more than 3,500 aircraft were airborne when the national stop began and fewer than 400 remained in the air by 8 p.m. The order held departing flights while the FAA managed traffic already airborne. Medevac flights, life-saving cargo and law-enforcement flights were exempted, according to the source account. The FAA’s advisories show flights being released as facilities recovered and in coordination with its Command Center.
FAA ground stop · Nov 13, 2026 · times ET (UTC−5)
Unreliable data, a full stop, a slow restart
What the FAA Command Center’s advisories and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy describe, step by step.
US airspace (schematic)
plane (schematic)airports
3,500+ planes in the airwhen the stop began, Duffy says Fewer than 400still airborne by 8 p.m. ET, Duffy says Restartground stop cancelled; flights resume slowly
What the FAA and Duffy said
- 3:21 p.m.Chicago O’Hare: arrival delays “due to equipment issues”FAA advisory 106
- 3:36 p.m.Radar and communications unstable at centers and TRACONs nationwideDuffy
- 3:54 p.m.“All airports are ground stopped”; departures heldFAA advisory 111
- 4:20 p.m.Airborne holding expected at “any and all airports”FAA advisory 116
- 8 p.m.Fewer than 400 planes still airborne, down from 3,500+Duffy
- 8:16 p.m.Nationwide ground stop cancelled; Duffy: airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m.FAA advisory 005
Sources: FAA Air Traffic Control System Command Center advisories 106, 111 and 116 (Nov 13) and 005 (Nov 14, 2026, UTC dates); Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at the White House briefing, Nov 13 (transcript: Roll Call Factba.se) and on X (as quoted by Fox Business); BBC News, Nov 14. Durations: own calculation from advisory event times (2026: 20:53 to 01:16 UTC; 2023: 12:20 to 14:00 UTC). The radar picture is a schematic, not real traffic.
Graphic: Powered by Thorsten Meyer AI
How the Stop Disrupted Air Travel
A nationwide departure halt affects more than passengers waiting at airport gates. Aircraft and crews can be left out of position, and later flights may be delayed or cancelled even after air traffic control lifts the restriction. The FAA’s advisories show that individual airport and airline ground stops continued into the night as carriers worked through the disruption.
FlightAware counted 9,159 cancellations within, into or out of the United States on Friday, and 3,515 more by 7:58 a.m. ET Saturday. Those figures cover all cancellations in those periods, not only flights caused by the FAA stop, so they should not be read as the event’s confirmed cancellation toll. The disruption also affected international schedules: the source account says Eurocontrol suspended US-bound departures from member states at the FAA’s request, while some overseas airports held US-bound flights.
The episode also highlights the operational importance of communications links between air traffic control facilities. When controllers cannot rely on consistent information, restricting departures is a safety measure, even if it creates widespread delays. The scale of the halt makes the reliability and condition of the FAA’s systems a concern for travelers and businesses that depend on air transport.
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From Chicago Delays to a National Halt
The Command Center advisories trace a rapid escalation on Friday afternoon. Earlier notices cited weather and traffic conditions, but the 3:21 p.m. O’Hare advisory was the first in the account to identify equipment issues. The FAA then imposed local departure restrictions before issuing the nationwide order less than half an hour later.
During the stop, the FAA extended the time allowed for flight plans to remain active to 240 minutes, according to an advisory citing a nationwide communications failure. At 5:46 p.m., the Command Center said departures would be allowed as en route facilities recovered and flights could be coordinated. At 7:37 p.m., it reported that some coastal facilities were releasing some international departures. Its cancellation notice listed 8:16 p.m. as the end time; Duffy also said airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m.
Secretary Duffy said the FAA’s system needs modernization and called on Congress to fund a replacement, proposing $50 billion. The source account also says the FAA has 21 en route centers, citing a 2023 FAA-commissioned review. That figure describes the wider system, not how many facilities were confirmed to have failed in this incident.
“All airports are ground stopped.”
— FAA Command Center advisory
What Investigators Have Not Established
Officials have described the failure as communications instability and Duffy has offered an explanation involving older telecom equipment, but no written root-cause report has been published in the source material. It is not clear which specific devices or facilities failed, why the equipment became overloaded, or what technical steps restored service.
Mullin said officials had seen no evidence of a cyberattack and that the failure appeared mechanical, but he also said investigators were not ruling out a cyberattack. Duffy and the maker of the FAA’s SMART traffic tool said the new AI system was not connected to the failed equipment. The available account does not include a published technical investigation independently verifying the cause or ruling out other contributing factors.
The precise number of cancellations caused by the ground stop is also unknown. FlightAware’s daily totals include cancellations for other reasons, and the figures in the source account do not isolate the FAA incident’s share.
FAA Review and Modernization Plans
The FAA’s technicians were investigating the communications problem, according to the agency’s initial statement, which it marked preliminary and subject to change. The next key development is a fuller account from the FAA explaining the equipment failure, how facilities recovered and what steps the agency will take to reduce the risk of a repeat.
Duffy has urged Congress to fund a new system and put forward a $50 billion proposal, but the source material does not establish whether lawmakers have approved that funding or provide a schedule for replacing the equipment. Airlines and travelers may continue to face knock-on delays while aircraft and crews return to their planned schedules; the extent and duration of those effects were not yet clear.
Key Questions
Why did the FAA stop departures nationwide?
The FAA said communications issues affected multiple air traffic control centers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said radar and communications became unstable and attributed the problem to older telecom equipment that was overloaded with data. A written root-cause report has not been published.
How long did the nationwide ground stop last?
The FAA advisories list the event as starting at about 3:53 p.m. ET and the cancellation as effective at 8:16 p.m. ET on Nov. 13, a span of about four hours and 23 minutes. Duffy said airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m.
Was the disruption caused by a cyberattack?
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officials had seen no evidence of a cyberattack and that the problem appeared mechanically driven. He also said investigators were not ruling out a cyberattack. The cause has not been documented in a published root-cause report.
How many flights were cancelled because of the stop?
The exact number attributable to the ground stop is not established. FlightAware counted 9,159 cancellations within, into or out of the United States on Friday, but that total includes cancellations for reasons beyond the FAA order.
Could another nationwide stop happen?
Duffy warned that further disruptions could occur without modernization funding, but the source material does not establish that another stop is expected or when the FAA’s systems might be replaced. The agency’s investigation and any funding decisions will affect what happens next.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
