The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop Friday evening, November 13, 2026, after communication failures forced airports across the United States to suspend most departures for more than four hours. The disruption left thousands of travelers stranded, caused widespread cancellations and raised new concerns about the nation's aging air traffic control infrastructure.
The FAA ordered the emergency halt Friday afternoon after communications and radar systems became unreliable at regional air traffic control centers. Aircraft already in the air were generally allowed to continue toward their destinations, while many departing flights remained on the ground.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that flights could resume after technicians stabilized the affected systems. However, he warned that restoring normal airline operations would take time because aircraft, crews and passengers had been displaced throughout the country.
FAA Orders Emergency Ground Stop Across the United States
The emergency began around 3:36 p.m. Eastern Time, when air traffic controllers reported problems with the systems used to communicate with pilots and monitor aircraft.
The FAA's Air Traffic Control System Command Center issued a nationwide ground stop advisory shortly afterward. The order applied to departures at airports throughout the United States and cited extraordinary circumstances involving aviation safety.
The advisory instructed aircraft operators to keep departing flights on the ground until further notice. International arrivals and certain departures were to be evaluated individually as controllers worked to maintain safe operations.
The communications difficulties affected the nation's 22 regional Air Route Traffic Control Centers. These facilities coordinate aircraft traveling between airports, particularly flights operating at higher altitudes.
Unlike airport control towers, which primarily manage aircraft near runways and surrounding airspace, regional centers oversee large sections of the national airspace system.
Reliable communication between those facilities is essential because controllers must coordinate aircraft movements, transfer responsibility for flights and respond to changing conditions.
When the equipment became unreliable, federal aviation officials decided that temporarily stopping departures was the safest available response.
Aging Air Traffic Control Equipment Blamed for Failure
Federal officials initially described the emergency as a telecommunications outage without providing a specific technical explanation.
During a Friday evening briefing, Duffy said the problems involved older communications equipment that had become overwhelmed by data.
The transportation secretary explained that overloaded switches and routers began providing inconsistent information. That instability affected both communications and radar-related operations.
Duffy described the air traffic control network as an aging system that still relies heavily on analog technology. He said the equipment failure demonstrated the urgent need to modernize the nation's aviation infrastructure.
The government has been replacing older equipment with newer communications systems, including fiber-optic connections. However, much of the network continues operating with technology that officials consider outdated.
Investigators had not established every technical factor behind the failure by Friday evening. Federal officials said they would continue examining why the systems became overloaded and whether additional safeguards were necessary.
The disruption occurred as the FAA was introducing newer technology designed to improve airspace management. Officials emphasized that there was no indication the recently introduced artificial intelligence system caused the emergency.
Officials Find No Evidence of Cyberattack
The nationwide shutdown initially raised questions about whether a cyberattack or another security incident might have affected the air traffic control network.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin addressed those concerns during the federal government's evening briefing.
Mullin said investigators had found no evidence indicating that the disruption resulted from malicious activity. He described the problem as a technical failure involving telecommunications equipment.
Officials also emphasized that the decision to halt departures was intended to prevent unsafe conditions rather than respond to a confirmed aviation accident.
The systems had not experienced a complete nationwide communications blackout. Instead, controllers encountered intermittent problems that made the equipment unreliable.
That distinction helped explain why aircraft already airborne could continue flying while additional departures were restricted.
Federal authorities said the precautionary decision allowed controllers to manage existing flights without introducing unnecessary traffic into an unstable system.
Thousands of Flights Canceled or Delayed
The ground stop quickly disrupted air travel at major airports, including Chicago O'Hare, Dallas Fort Worth, Denver, Los Angeles and New York.
Airlines were forced to hold departing aircraft at gates and on taxiways. Some passengers remained seated aboard aircraft while waiting for updates, while others encountered long lines at airline service counters.
By Friday evening, flight-tracking services had recorded thousands of cancellations and delays. ABC News reported that nearly 5,000 flights had been canceled during the disruption.
Hundreds of aircraft were also diverted to alternative airports or returned to their original departure locations.
Aviation analytics company Cirium reported that at least 600 flights had been diverted by late Friday afternoon. Some aircraft returned to their departure airports, while others landed at different destinations.
The disruption also affected international travel. European aviation authorities temporarily restricted departures toward the United States, while airlines operating flights between Canada and American airports announced cancellations.
Cargo operators were affected because the ground stop applied to departing aircraft carrying freight as well as passengers.
Even after the FAA authorized departures to resume, the nationwide interruption left airlines facing a complicated recovery.
Aircraft and crews were no longer positioned where their schedules required them to be. Some pilots and flight attendants also faced working-hour limitations that could prevent them from operating additional flights.
Airlines Warn of Continued Weekend Disruptions
The FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop Friday evening after technicians tested the affected systems and officials determined that departures could safely resume.
Some airports had already received permission to release certain international flights before the broader restrictions ended.
At San Francisco International Airport, for example, flights traveling across the Pacific were permitted to depart while many domestic services remained suspended.
Once nationwide restrictions were removed, airlines began adjusting schedules and arranging replacement flights for stranded passengers.
JetBlue announced that it had canceled its remaining domestic departures Friday evening and warned that additional disruptions could continue Saturday.
Air Canada also canceled flights involving the United States for the remainder of Friday, citing the effects of the FAA restrictions.
Airport officials urged passengers to check directly with their airlines before traveling to terminals. A nationwide authorization to resume operations did not guarantee that individual flights would depart on schedule.
Travelers whose flights were canceled could seek refunds or alternative transportation under applicable airline policies and federal passenger protection rules.
Similar FAA Failure Disrupted Flights in 2023
Friday's nationwide ground stop was the first of its kind since January 11, 2023, when a failure involving the FAA's Notice to Air Missions system disrupted departures across the country.
That earlier outage affected the system pilots use to receive essential