FAA orders nationwide ground stop after communications failure hits air traffic control

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered every airport in the United States to hold departing flights on Friday afternoon (November 13) after a communications failure hit all 22 of the country's Air Route Traffic Control Centers. Reuters called it the second nationwide ground stop since the September 11, 2001 attacks. The order went out at 3:54 p.m. ET; planes already in the air were allowed to land, but nothing on the ground could take off.

Failure hit all 22 control centers

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on social media that the stop followed “a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers,” and that FAA technicians were investigating. The FAA later called it a “temporary telecommunications outage,” saying flights were halted out of an abundance of caution and that every flight had been accounted for. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters outside the White House that there was no indication yet that it was an attack, and no timeline for a full restart.

More than 10,000 delays, about 2,500 cancellations

Flight-tracking service FlightAware counted more than 10,000 US flights delayed and about 2,500 canceled by 6 p.m. ET. Aviation analytics firm Cirium said about 26,284 flights had been scheduled to depart US airports on Friday, with roughly 11,000 of them due after 4 p.m. ET carrying more than 1.5 million passengers. Flightradar24 said about 3,100 aircraft were airborne and bound for US airports when the order took hold. Flights between Canada and the US were also held or delayed at Canadian airports, even though Canadian air traffic systems were not affected.

Phased release; next update at 11 p.m.

In an advisory at 5:46 p.m. ET, the FAA said the nationwide ground stop remained in effect but departures would be released in stages as en route facilities recovered, with its next update expected at 11 p.m. ET. By 6:55 p.m. ET, the FAA's National Airspace System status board no longer showed a nationwide ground stop in force, but the agency had not formally announced the stop lifted, and ground delay programs remained in place at several airports. The advisory runs through 4 a.m. UTC on Saturday.

Weather Service also hit; cause unknown

The root cause has not been identified. Reuters noted the US National Weather Service also reported nationwide internet and communications problems on Friday, with no indication the two were related and no evidence of a cyberattack. The previous nationwide ground stop was in January 2023, when a flight notice system failure halted departures for about 90 minutes.

Sources: Reuters; Associated Press; Federal Aviation Administration; FlightAware. The status of the ground stop is still developing; the FAA's latest advisory governs.