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TL;DR
The FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop on November 13 after reported instability in radar and communications systems disrupted air traffic facilities. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed overloaded legacy equipment, but officials have not published a root-cause report; Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no evidence of a cyberattack while leaving that possibility open.
The FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop on Friday, November 13, after reported radar and communications instability affected air traffic facilities, holding departures for about four hours and 23 minutes. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said aging telecom equipment had been overloaded, but officials have not released a written root-cause report, and the precise failure remains unclear.
FAA Command Center advisories trace the disruption to equipment problems near Chicago. At 3:21 p.m. ET, the FAA cited equipment issues as it warned of delays and airborne holding at O’Hare. At 3:28 p.m., it stopped departures to O’Hare from across the United States and several Canadian airports, describing the problem as an outage and communications issue. Midway departures followed under a stop at 3:31 p.m.
The nationwide order followed at about 3:53 p.m. ET. The FAA directed departing aircraft to remain on the ground, while saying inbound international flights would be managed case by case. The agency said communication issues were affecting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers and that technicians were investigating. Its statement was marked preliminary and subject to change.
Duffy said the FAA experienced instability in radar and communications at en route centers and approach control facilities beginning around 3:36 p.m. He said more than 3,500 aircraft were airborne when the stop began and fewer than 400 remained in the air by 8 p.m. Medevac, life-saving cargo and law enforcement flights were allowed to continue. FAA advisories show the stop was lifted at about 8:16 p.m.; Duffy gave the reopening time as 8:15 p.m.
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 cover all cancellations in those periods, not just flights affected by the ground stop. The disruption also prompted action outside the United States: Eurocontrol suspended US-bound departures from member states at the FAA’s request, according to a notice cited by Xinhua. BBC News reported that Sydney Airport held US-bound flights and Air Canada cancelled service between Canada and the United States.
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 Disrupted Air Travel
A nationwide ground stop can quickly affect far more than aircraft waiting at US gates. Departures were held while planes already in the air had to be managed, and international operators adjusted their schedules in response to the FAA’s order. Even after the stop ended, airlines had to contend with aircraft and crews out of position, contributing to cancellations beyond the period when departures were halted.
The event also highlights the consequences of disruption to systems that coordinate air traffic across multiple facilities. Duffy said the agency’s equipment was outdated and warned that similar incidents could occur without investment. That is his assessment; the FAA has not yet published a technical account establishing the failure mechanism or whether equipment age alone explains it.
For passengers, the immediate practical effect is that a lifted ground stop does not mean normal service resumes at once. Friday’s cancellation figures include broader disruptions and should not be read as a count caused solely by the FAA order. Travelers and businesses that rely on air cargo may face knock-on delays while airlines restore schedules.
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From Chicago Delays to Nationwide Stop
The FAA’s advisories show a progression from local disruption to a national restriction. Before the equipment-related notices, the Command Center had issued delays and ground stops that cited wind, low clouds or traffic volume. Chicago was the first area where the published notices specifically named equipment and communications problems. At 3:30 p.m., the FAA activated a diversion recovery tool for all airports.
During the nationwide stop, the Command Center said flight-plan drop times at all en route centers would be extended to 240 minutes, allowing filed plans to remain active longer as flights waited. A later advisory said flights could resume through coordination as facilities recovered. By 7:37 p.m., some coastal facilities had released some international departures. The nationwide order was cancelled at 8:16 p.m., though airport- and airline-specific restrictions continued afterward.
The FAA’s en route centers manage aircraft traveling between airports; an FAA-commissioned review in 2023 counted 21 such centers. The source account describes the network as relying in part on older telecom systems, but the public record supplied so far does not identify the failed component or provide a full technical reconstruction.
““We didn’t lose all telecom we didn’t lose all radar.””
— Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy
The Failure’s Exact Cause Is Unclear
Officials have not published a written root-cause report explaining which equipment failed, how the problem spread across facilities, or why it produced the reported instability. Duffy said old analog telecom switches and routers became overloaded with data and delivered inconsistent information. That account has not yet been substantiated in a public technical report.
Mullin said authorities had seen no evidence of a cyberattack but would not rule one out. Duffy and the maker of the FAA’s new SMART air-traffic tool said SMART was not connected to the failed equipment. The available information does not establish whether the investigation has ruled out other technical or operational factors, or how the FAA will prevent a repeat.
The reported cancellation counts also have limits: they include all cancellations in the stated periods, not only those caused by the ground stop. The source material does not provide a final count of passengers affected or a complete tally of flights directly delayed by the order.
FAA Investigation and Funding Debate
The FAA’s technicians were investigating the communications issue, but the agency had not issued a final public explanation in the material available for this report. A technical account of the affected equipment, the sequence of failures and any corrective steps would clarify whether the disruption came from one component or problems across multiple facilities.
Duffy said the federal government needs to replace the system and called for $50 billion in congressional funding. That figure is his request, not an approved appropriation. Congress’s response and the FAA’s eventual findings will shape what modernization work is funded and whether the agency changes its contingency procedures. In the meantime, passengers should check directly with airlines for current flight status, as airport-level restrictions and schedule recovery can continue after a national stop is lifted.
Key Questions
How long did the nationwide FAA ground stop last?
FAA advisory times put the stop at about 4 hours and 23 minutes, from roughly 3:53 p.m. to 8:16 p.m. ET on November 13. Duffy said the airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m.
What did officials say caused the flight halt?
Duffy attributed the disruption to radar and communications instability and said older telecom switches and routers had been overloaded with data. The FAA had not published a root-cause report confirming the precise failure.
Was the FAA outage caused by a cyberattack?
Mullin said officials had seen zero evidence of a cyberattack and that the problem appeared mechanical, but he said investigators would not rule a cyberattack out. No definitive public finding was provided.
Were all flights and airports shut down?
The FAA ordered departing traffic at US airports to remain on the ground, with inbound international flights handled case by case. Officials said medevac, life-saving cargo and law enforcement flights could continue, and some international departures were later released as facilities recovered.
How many cancellations were caused by the ground stop?
The source reports 9,159 cancellations within, into or out of the United States on Friday, but that figure covers all cancellations that day, not only those attributed to the ground stop. It does not establish a final count of cancellations directly caused by the FAA order.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
