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TL;DR
The FAA grounded departures at U.S. airports for about four hours and 23 minutes on Nov. 13 after communications problems affected air traffic control facilities. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed instability involving older telecom equipment, while officials said they had found no evidence of a cyberattack; a written root-cause report has not been released.
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded departures at airports across the United States for about four hours and 23 minutes on Friday, Nov. 13, after communications problems affected multiple air traffic control facilities. The FAA lifted the stop at about 8:16 p.m. Eastern time; officials have described equipment instability but have not published a written report establishing the failure’s root cause.
FAA Command Center advisories show equipment-related trouble first affecting Chicago-area operations. At 3:21 p.m. ET, the center warned of arrival delays and airborne holding at O’Hare because of equipment issues. At 3:28 p.m., it stopped departures to O’Hare from across the United States and several Canadian airports, citing an outage and communications issues. Midway departures were stopped shortly afterward.
At 3:54 p.m. ET, the Command Center issued a nationwide ground stop, ordering departing traffic to remain on the ground. Its advisory cited “extraordinary circumstances” and safety. The FAA said communication issues were affecting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers and that technicians were investigating. The agency labeled its statement preliminary and subject to change.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said more than 3,500 aircraft were airborne when the stop began and fewer than 400 remained airborne by 8 p.m. ET. Duffy said radar and communications had become unstable at en route centers and approach control facilities. The FAA allowed some flights, including medevac, life-saving cargo and law enforcement operations, to continue, according to the source account.
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
Disruption Reached Beyond U.S. Airports
A nationwide departure hold affects more than travelers waiting at gates. It can disrupt aircraft positioning, crew schedules and connecting flights, with delays continuing after the order ends as airlines work to put planes and staff back in place. The source reports that the FAA continued issuing airport- and airline-specific ground stops into the night.
The effects also crossed borders. The source says Eurocontrol suspended US-bound departures from its member states at the FAA’s request from 22:00 UTC on Nov. 13 until 05:00 UTC on Nov. 14. It also cites reports that Sydney Airport held US-bound flights and Air Canada cancelled some service between Canada and the United States. FlightAware counted 9,159 cancellations within, into or out of the U.S. on Friday, and 3,515 more by 7:58 a.m. ET Saturday. Those are full-day totals, not counts attributed solely to the ground stop.
The incident has also renewed attention to the reliability of air traffic control infrastructure. If the systems that coordinate aircraft cannot communicate consistently, the FAA may have to restrict departures to maintain safe separation and manage traffic. The event’s operational reach is clear; its precise technical cause is not.
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From Chicago Delays to Nationwide Holds
The FAA’s public advisories trace the disruption from Chicago to a nationwide order. After the early O’Hare and Midway restrictions, the Command Center activated a diversion recovery tool for all airports at 3:30 p.m. Duffy said the broader problem began at 3:36 p.m. ET. The nationwide stop followed 18 minutes later.
Subsequent notices described a communications failure and set flight-plan drop times at en route centers to 240 minutes, allowing filed plans to remain active longer while flights waited. At 5:46 p.m., the FAA said recovering facilities would release flights in coordination with the Command Center. At 7:37 p.m., it reported that some coastal facilities had begun releasing some international departures. The nationwide advisory was cancelled with an effective time of 8:16 p.m.
The source identifies 21 en route centers, citing a 2023 FAA-commissioned review. These facilities manage aircraft traveling between airports. The advisories indicate a staged recovery rather than an immediate return to normal operations.
“We didn’t lose all telecom we didn’t lose all radar.”
— Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy
Root Cause Still Unconfirmed
Duffy attributed the trouble to older analog telecom switches and routers that, in his account, were overloaded with data and delivered inconsistent information. That is an official explanation, but the source material says no written root-cause report has been published. The precise equipment involved, the sequence of failures and whether a specific component triggered the nationwide disruption remain unclear.
Mullin said officials had seen “zero evidence” of a cyberattack and that the incident appeared mechanically driven, but he said investigators were not ruling out a cyberattack. Duffy and the maker of the FAA’s SMART air traffic tool said SMART was not connected to the failed equipment. The available information does not establish an independent technical finding about the cause.
The disruption’s full effect on individual passengers is also not captured by the national cancellation totals. FlightAware’s figures cover all cancellations within, into or out of the country during the stated periods, not just flights cancelled because of the FAA order.
FAA Investigation and System Funding
The FAA’s immediate task is to investigate the equipment and communications problems and determine why they affected multiple facilities. The agency’s initial statement called its information preliminary; the source material does not give a date for a final report or a specific timetable for releasing one.
Airlines continued managing individual disruptions after the nationwide stop ended, and passengers could still face cancellations or schedule changes as aircraft and crews were repositioned. Travelers should check directly with their airline for current flight status rather than treating the end of the FAA order as confirmation that every service has returned to its planned schedule.
Duffy has called for $50 billion for a new air traffic control system and warned that similar events could happen again without funding. The source does not establish that Congress has approved that request or that a replacement program has a confirmed schedule. The technical findings, any corrective measures and the funding outcome remain open.
Key Questions
How long did the nationwide FAA ground stop last?
FAA advisory times put the stop at about four hours and 23 minutes, from around 3:53 p.m. to 8:16 p.m. ET on Nov. 13. Duffy said airspace reopened at about 8:15 p.m.
What did officials say failed?
Duffy said radar and communications became unstable at en route centers and approach control facilities, and blamed overloaded older telecom switches and routers. The FAA described communication issues affecting multiple centers, but a written root-cause report has not been published.
Was the disruption caused by a cyberattack?
Officials said they had found no evidence of a cyberattack at the time, and Mullin said the incident appeared mechanically driven. He also said officials were not ruling out a cyberattack, so the cause has not been conclusively established.
Does the cancellation total show how many flights the ground stop caused?
No. FlightAware counted 9,159 cancellations within, into or out of the United States on Nov. 13, but that figure includes all cancellations that day, not only those caused by the FAA ground stop.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
