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TL;DR
The FAA grounded departing flights nationwide on Nov. 13 after communications and radar instability affected air traffic facilities. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the disruption to overloaded older equipment, while officials said they had found no evidence of a cyberattack; the FAA has not published a written root-cause report.
The Federal Aviation Administration halted departures at airports across the United States for a little over four hours on Friday, Nov. 13, after communications problems affected multiple air traffic control facilities. The FAA’s advisories show the nationwide stop began at about 3:53 p.m. ET and ended at 8:16 p.m.; officials have described equipment instability but have not published a written report explaining the failure’s root cause.
The FAA Command Center first reported equipment-related problems at Chicago O’Hare, where an advisory issued at 3:21 p.m. warned of arrival delays and airborne holding. At 3:28 p.m., the center stopped departures to O’Hare from across the United States and several Canadian airports, citing an equipment outage and communications issues. Chicago Midway followed at 3:31 p.m. The FAA then issued the nationwide ground stop, saying it was acting “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the FAA experienced instability in radar and communications at en route centers and approach control facilities. He attributed the problem to older analog telecommunications switches and routers that were overloaded with data and supplied inconsistent information. Duffy said it was not a complete loss of radar or telecommunications. The FAA’s initial statement said communication issues were affecting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers and that technicians were investigating; it labeled the statement preliminary and subject to change.
Duffy said more than 3,500 aircraft were airborne when the stop began and fewer than 400 remained in the air by 8 p.m. The advisories allowed some exceptions, including medevac, life-saving cargo and law enforcement flights, according to the source account. The FAA later coordinated departures as facilities recovered, then marked the nationwide stop cancelled with an event time of 8:16 p.m. ET. The Secretary said airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m., a one-minute difference between the public accounts.
The disruption extended beyond the United States. Eurocontrol suspended US-bound departures from its member states at the FAA’s request between 22:00 UTC Friday and 05:00 UTC Saturday, according to an account citing the European agency’s notice. FlightAware recorded 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 totals cover all cancellations during those periods, not just flights cancelled because of the ground stop.
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 Halt Reached Travelers
A nationwide departure stop can strand passengers far from the airport where the technical fault began. Flights already in the air, waiting aircraft, crews and connecting passengers all require coordination as operations restart. Even after the FAA lifts a restriction, carriers may need time to reposition aircraft and crews, so the effects can continue into later flights. The FAA advisories show that recovery was managed facility by facility rather than through an immediate return to normal operations.
The incident also affected international travel. Eurocontrol’s suspension of US-bound departures meant that the FAA’s decision shaped flights leaving European airports as well as domestic departures. For travelers, the practical concern is that a short-lived control-system problem can produce cancellations and delays beyond the original period of the ground stop. The available cancellation counts should not be read as a precise tally of the stop’s impact, because they include other causes.
The explanation matters to airlines, passengers and policymakers because air traffic control depends on communications between facilities and aircraft. Duffy said the episode showed the risks of aging systems and argued that Congress should fund modernization. That is his assessment of the problem and its policy implications; the FAA has not yet released a written technical finding establishing the precise cause.
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From Chicago Delays to Nationwide Stop
The FAA’s public advisories trace the escalation from local problems to a national restriction over roughly half an hour. Earlier Friday notices cited weather and traffic volume. The first notice in the source account to identify equipment came at 3:21 p.m. for O’Hare. A departure stop affecting O’Hare followed, then a similar measure for Midway. At 3:30 p.m., the Command Center activated a diversion recovery tool for all airports, before the nationwide ground stop was issued at 3:54 p.m.
During the stoppage, the Command Center warned that aircraft might be held at any airport and extended flight-plan drop times at all en route centers to 240 minutes. That measure kept plans active longer while aircraft waited on the ground. An advisory at 5:46 p.m. said flights would be released through coordination as en route facilities recovered. By 7:37 p.m., some coastal facilities were releasing some international departures. The FAA cancelled the national stop shortly after 8 p.m., but continued issuing restrictions for individual airports and airlines as carriers worked through the backlog.
The source account describes the Nov. 13 event as the longest nationwide ground stop since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, citing BBC News. That comparison is not necessary to establish the disruption’s scale: the FAA’s own advisories document a stop lasting about four hours and 23 minutes, from 3:53 p.m. to 8:16 p.m. ET.
““ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED.””
— FAA Air Traffic Control System Command Center
The Cause Has Not Been Documented
The FAA has not published a written root-cause report in the material available here. Duffy described overloaded analog telecommunications equipment and inconsistent data, but the agency’s initial statement said only that communications issues were affecting multiple centers and that technicians were investigating. It remains unclear which specific devices or facilities failed, what triggered the overload, and how the fault spread from the Chicago area to a nationwide response.
Mullin said officials had found no evidence of a cyberattack and that the problem appeared mechanical, while also saying investigators would not rule out cyber involvement. Duffy and the maker of the FAA’s new SMART traffic tool said SMART was not connected to the failed equipment. The source material does not include a published investigation confirming those explanations or detailing the technical evidence behind them.
Officials also have not provided a final count of cancellations attributable specifically to the ground stop. FlightAware’s reported figures include cancellations from across the day, and the source account does not separate the effects of the FAA action from weather, airline decisions or other disruptions. The difference between Duffy’s 8:15 p.m. reopening time and the FAA advisory’s 8:16 p.m. cancellation time is minor, but the accounts do not explain it.
FAA Investigation and Modernization Debate
FAA technicians were investigating the communications issue, according to the agency’s Friday statement. The next substantive milestone is a fuller agency explanation identifying the affected equipment, the failure sequence and any changes made to reduce the risk of another disruption. No publication date for such a report appears in the source material, so the timing and scope of the findings remain unknown.
Duffy has called for $50 billion for a new air traffic control system and warned of future disruptions without congressional funding. That funding proposal and his forecast are statements by the Transportation Secretary, not a confirmed schedule for replacing equipment. Congress’s response, the FAA’s technical findings and whether the agency issues interim safeguards are all still pending.
Passengers with upcoming trips should check directly with their airlines for flight status and rebooking information. The FAA’s end to the nationwide stop did not immediately clear the accumulated disruption: the Command Center continued issuing airport- and airline-specific restrictions after the national order was cancelled, while carriers managed aircraft and crew schedules.
Key Questions
Why did the FAA ground flights nationwide?
The FAA said communications problems were affecting multiple air traffic control centers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the instability to older telecommunications equipment that was overloaded with data, but a written root-cause report has not been published.
When did the ground stop begin and end?
The FAA’s advisories place the start at about 3:53 p.m. ET on Nov. 13, 2026, and the cancellation at 8:16 p.m. Duffy said airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m. ET.
Was the disruption caused by a cyberattack?
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officials had seen “zero evidence” of a cyberattack and that the incident appeared mechanically driven, while adding that officials would not rule cyber involvement out. The source material does not provide a final investigation finding.
How many flights were cancelled because of the stop?
The available figures do not isolate cancellations caused by the ground stop. 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 totals include cancellations for other reasons.
Will another nationwide stop happen?
Duffy warned that similar disruptions could occur without investment in a replacement system, but that is his forecast. The FAA has not published a root-cause report or a timeline for equipment replacement in the source material.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
