FAA lifts nationwide ground stop after communications outage
The Federal Aviation Administration ended an hours-long nationwide ground stop on Friday, citing an old-hardware communications failure and confirming no cyberattack or major software outage.
The United States lifted an hours-long ground stop at its airports on Friday, November 13, 2026, after a communications failure disrupted all Air Route Traffic Control Centres. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said U.S. airspace was now “opened up” and attributed the incident to “old hardware.”
More than 10,000 flights were cancelled or delayed, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded. The FAA described the problem as a “temporary telecommunications outage” and said it acted “out of an abundance of caution.”
"U.S. airspace is now opened up," said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin added that there was no indication of a threat to the United States.
"There is no sign of a threat to the United States," Mullin said.
The event marks only the second nationwide ground stop since the September 11 attacks. The FAA’s order followed a request by the Transportation Secretary for $30 billion from Congress to modernise the nation’s air-traffic control system.