FAA Issues Nationwide Ground Stop After a Telecommunications Outage

Update, as of about 7:50 PM Central Time on Friday, November 13, 2026: The FAA has lifted the nationwide ground stop, and departing flights may resume. The Washington Post, citing an FAA spokesperson, said the stop ended shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern (shortly after 7:00 PM Central Time), after more than four hours. The Associated Press and Reuters also reported that the FAA said the stop had been lifted or canceled. As of about 7:50 PM Central Time, the FAA Command Center status page no longer listed a nationwide ground stop. Delays and cancellations are likely to continue as airlines work through the backlog, so travelers should still check with their airline. ABC News, citing FlightAware, reported nearly 5,000 flight cancellations on Friday and nearly 800 already listed for Saturday.

At a White House briefing, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said "inconsistency" in data from routers in the air traffic control system led to the ground stop. According to ABC News, he said that at 3:36 p.m. the FAA "experienced instability for our radar and our communications in our centers and our TRACONs across the country," that switches and routers "got overloaded with data" and began to give "inconsistency in the data from those routers," and that "because of that, we shut the system down." Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was "no cyberattack," that the public was not in danger, and that no lives or flights were at risk.

As of about 4:05 PM Central Time on Friday, November 13, 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration still has a nationwide ground stop in place for departing flights at U.S. airports. The FAA said there has been a temporary telecommunications outage and that, out of an abundance of caution, flights have been halted. It also said every flight has been accounted for. The FAA Air Traffic Control System Command Center's status page still listed a nationwide ground stop for all airports, with the reason shown as "EQUIPMENT / OUTAGE."

The short version: the nationwide ground stop has been lifted, and departures may resume. The stop lasted more than four hours, from 2:54 PM Central Time until shortly after 7:00 PM Central Time. Expect delays and cancellations as airlines catch up. Check your flight with the airline before you go to the airport. Officials have described the cause as a telecommunications outage, and Secretary Duffy said routers in the air traffic control system became overloaded with data. Secretary Mullin said there was no cyberattack.

What happened

The FAA issued the nationwide order at 2:54 PM Central Time (20:54 UTC), according to Flightradar24, which published the Command Center advisory. The advisory said the stop was "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety," that all airports were ground stopped, that "all departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice," and that inbound international flights would be managed case by case.

At 3:16 PM Central Time, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote on X that the FAA "issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers." He said FAA technicians are investigating the issue and that the agency would provide updates as it has them. Air Route Traffic Control Centers handle aircraft on the en route, or cruise, portion of their flights. There are 22 of those centers in the United States.

At 4:02 PM Central Time, the FAA's official account said: "There has been a temporary telecommunications outage - out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted. Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis." Flightradar24 reported that the FAA cited an equipment outage affecting air traffic control frequencies. The FAA has not released a more detailed explanation of the cause. That remains under investigation.

Reuters reported that, shortly before the nationwide order, the FAA had halted traffic in Chicago because of air traffic control communications issues.

How large the disruption is

According to Reuters, FlightAware reported nearly 7,000 flights delayed or cancelled. The FAA has not issued its own count. Flightradar24 said that when the nationwide order was issued, 4,042 flights were already airborne and bound for U.S. airports. Those flights have been allowed to continue, though delays and diversions can still occur as airports fill up.

Reuters reported that this is the second nationwide ground stop of all departures since September 11, 2001. The other was in January 2023, when a failure of the FAA's Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system led the agency to pause domestic departures for less than two hours.

What to do now

1. Check with your airline before you go to the airport. Look at the airline's app or website, or call the airline, for the status of your specific flight. Airport statements have been pointing travelers back to their carriers.
2. A ground stop is not an automatic cancellation. Your flight may be delayed, retimed, or cancelled once the airline can move its schedule. Allow extra time, especially if you have a connection this evening.
3. If you are already in the air, or meeting someone who is, flights already airborne have generally been allowed to continue to their destinations. Inbound international flights are being handled case by case.
4. If employees, clients, or air shipments are due to fly today, check those itineraries now and make backup plans for meetings or deliveries that depend on them. Delays can continue after the ground stop is lifted while airlines clear the backlog.
5. Watch official updates. The FAA posts airspace status at nasstatus.faa.gov and on the FAA News account on X. For your own ticket, the airline is the source to follow.

This is still an active incident. As of about 4:05 PM Central Time on Friday, November 13, 2026, the nationwide ground stop remained in effect, and the FAA had not said when departing flights could resume.