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FAA halts all US departures after an air traffic communications outage
The FAA stopped all departures at US airports on 13 November, citing extraordinary circumstances and safety, after a communications outage hit air traffic control centres. The Homeland Security Secretary saw no sign of a malicious act. Thousands of flights were hit; departures later resumed.
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The Federal Aviation Administration stopped all departing flights at United States airports on Friday, 13 November 2026, citing extraordinary circumstances and reasons of safety, after a communications outage affected the air traffic control system. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said at a briefing outside the White House that there was no indication the outage was a nefarious act and no reason to believe it was a threat to the country. Departures later resumed, after a stop that lasted hours, but airlines were left with thousands of delayed and cancelled flights. This report is based on official statements and early accounts and will change as the FAA publishes its findings.
What happened
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a social media post that the FAA issued the stop after a communication issue affected all of its Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the facilities that guide aircraft between airports, and that FAA technicians were investigating. The FAA and the White House described the problem as a telecommunications outage. People familiar with the matter said an update to the private communications network that connects the air traffic control system caused a system reboot, which led to a crash and a loss of communications. The network is operated by the defence contractor L3Harris, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The FAA has not published a cause, and those accounts have not been confirmed by the agency.
About 3,100 aircraft bound for US airports were in the air when the stop began, according to the flight tracking service FlightRadar24. Shortly afterwards, FlightAware listed more than 10,000 delays and over 4,000 cancellations, and another account put the total of delayed or cancelled flights at about 11,000. Delays spread through airports in Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Pittsburgh, New York, Los Angeles and Baltimore. Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports had been hit separately by a ground stop over an equipment outage shortly before the nationwide order.
| Item | What is reported |
|---|---|
| Order | Ground stop for all departures at US airports, citing extraordinary circumstances and safety |
| Cause given | Telecommunications outage affecting all en-route control centres |
| Reported trigger | Update to the private network connecting air traffic control, per people familiar |
| Airborne flights | About 3,100 aircraft bound for US airports |
| Early impact | More than 10,000 delays, over 4,000 cancellations |
| Security assessment | No indication of a nefarious act, per the Homeland Security Secretary |
Mullin said all flights were accounted for and that aircraft already in the air were handled case by case. Inbound international flights were to be managed case by case, and East Coast departures could fly over the Atlantic, while flights from Jacksonville, Houston, Miami and San Juan could depart southbound over the Gulf and the Atlantic, according to a source. The accounts available do not describe any incident in the air or any loss of separation between aircraft.
A ground stop is an instruction that keeps aircraft on the ground at their departure airports, and it is one of the FAA's standard tools for managing a problem with equipment or weather. A stop covering the whole country is rare. Robert Sumwalt, a former chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, called the event absolutely unprecedented. The nearest comparison is a shorter nationwide ground stop in January 2023, which was caused by an outage in the system that sends notices to pilots.
Is it linked to the Microsoft outage?
The ground stop came a day after the global Microsoft 365 outage, which disrupted email at governments, hospitals and airlines. Nothing in the official statements links the two. The FAA's communications system is a separate private network, and the Homeland Security Secretary's remarks did not point to a connection. Readers should treat any claim of a link as unsupported until the FAA says otherwise.
What happens next
The FAA and the Department of Transportation are expected to publish an account of what failed, and the details that matter are the cause of the reboot, why a backup did not keep the centres in contact, and whether the update that is said to have triggered it was tested. Airlines had to re-time crews and aircraft, and passengers were advised to check their flight status with the airline before going to the airport. The agency's website carries advisories, and the transportation secretary and the FAA are the sources for any further statement on the cause.
For travellers, the US Department of Transportation's rules require an airline to refund a ticket when it cancels a flight and the passenger chooses not to accept the rebooking offered, and airlines publish their own policies for delays. Passengers whose flights were cancelled should check the airline's app or website for rebooking options before going to the airport, since the ground stop created a backlog that will take time to clear. Airports and airlines said they were working to restore schedules, and the accounts available do not say how long recovery will take.
Sources
About the Author
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Subhash Gupta
Desk Editor
Subhash Gupta is a writer at Wirony, contributing articles that are reviewed and verified by the editorial team before publication. The publication prioritises accuracy, editorial…
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