FAA grounds all US departures after nationwide communications outage
A telecommunications failure at air traffic control centers forced the Federal Aviation Administration to halt all departing flights across the United States on Nov. 13, leading to thousands of cancellations and delays.
The US Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop for all departing flights on Nov. 13 after a communications failure affected air traffic control centres, the first such shutdown since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Flight-tracking service FlightAware reported more than 1,000 cancellations and delays affecting nearly 10,000 flights.
Aircraft already in the air were permitted to land, while those on the ground remained at gates, causing disruptions that extended to flights from Canada and Europe. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters there was no indication of a cyberattack, describing the event as a telecommunications outage and saying President Donald Trump had been briefed. He added that the department was reviewing all possible causes, including a new AI-powered air traffic control system.
The outage highlights ongoing strain on the US air traffic control system, which relies on aging equipment. The FAA recently announced plans to phase out floppy disks used for weather and other data at more than 400 facilities by the end of 2028. At the time of the ground stop, 4,042 flights were airborne heading to US airports, according to Flightradar24.
Airline officials said the FAA had not provided a timeline for lifting the stop, though some locations reported improving communications. Aviation analyst Robert Mann warned that if the halt continued into the evening, it could take the weekend to resolve network disruptions.
The incident follows a midair collision in January 2025 that killed 67 people and prompted the White House and the Department of Transportation to urge Congress on Nov. 13 to approve $30.1 billion for upgrades to ageing airports and air traffic control infrastructure.