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TL;DR
The FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop on Nov. 13 after officials reported instability affecting radar and communications at air traffic facilities. The stop lasted about four hours and 23 minutes by the FAA advisory times, disrupting flights in the United States and abroad. Officials said they had seen no evidence of a cyberattack, but no written root-cause report has been published.
The Federal Aviation Administration halted departing flights at U.S. airports for about four hours and 23 minutes on Friday, Nov. 13, after officials reported instability affecting radar and communications at air traffic facilities. The FAA’s Command Center ordered the nationwide stop at 3:54 p.m. ET and recorded its cancellation at 8:16 p.m., disrupting domestic and international travel while technicians investigated.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the problems began around 3:36 p.m. ET at en route centers and approach control facilities across the country. He described instability in radar and communications and said older analog telecommunications switches and routers were overloaded with data, producing inconsistent information. Duffy said the system was not entirely down: the country had not lost all communications or all radar.
The FAA’s public advisories trace the disruption from Chicago. At 3:21 p.m., the Command Center reported equipment-related delays and airborne holding for arrivals at O’Hare. It restricted departures to O’Hare at 3:28 p.m. and followed with a stop affecting Midway at 3:31 p.m. The national order came shortly afterward, citing extraordinary circumstances and safety. The FAA said multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers were affected and technicians were investigating; the agency marked its initial account preliminary.
Duffy said more than 3,500 aircraft were airborne when the nationwide order began and fewer than 400 remained airborne by 8 p.m. Medevac, life-saving cargo and law enforcement flights were allowed to operate. The FAA began releasing flights as facilities recovered, with some coastal facilities permitting international departures before the nationwide stop was formally cancelled. Local airport and airline restrictions continued as carriers worked through the disruption.
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 stop can delay flights even at airports where local operations are functioning, because aircraft and flight plans rely on coordination among air traffic facilities. The FAA advisories described airborne holding, extended flight-plan drop times and a phased release of departures, illustrating that recovery depended on facilities regaining the ability to coordinate traffic—not simply on lifting a single order.
The impact also crossed national borders. Eurocontrol suspended U.S.-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, according to the supplied account of its notice. Reports cited in the source said Sydney Airport held U.S.-bound flights and Air Canada cancelled flights between Canada and the United States. The disruption therefore affected travelers and carriers far from the facilities where the trouble was reported.
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 during the stated periods, not only flights cancelled because of the FAA stop. They show the scale of schedule disruption but do not establish how many cancellations the ground stop itself caused.
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From Chicago Delays to National Stop
The FAA’s advisories indicate that operational problems appeared before the nationwide order. Chicago-bound arrivals faced equipment-related delays, followed by restrictions on departures to O’Hare and Midway. At 3:30 p.m., the Command Center activated a diversion recovery tool for all airports. The nationwide stop followed as the reported trouble spread across air traffic facilities.
During the stop, the Command Center extended flight-plan drop times at all en route centers to 240 minutes, allowing filed plans to remain active longer while flights waited. Later advisories said departures would resume through coordination with the Command Center as facilities recovered. The source material says an FAA-commissioned 2023 review counted 21 en route centers, which largely manage aircraft traveling between airports.
The disruption prompted speculation about a cyberattack, a Microsoft outage the previous day and a new FAA artificial-intelligence traffic tool called SMART. Those possibilities are not established causes. Duffy and the tool’s maker said SMART was not connected to the equipment involved in the failure.
“We didn’t lose all telecom we didn’t lose all radar.”
— Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy
Cause Still Lacks Written Finding
The precise technical failure and its root cause remain unconfirmed in a published written report. Duffy attributed the instability to overloaded older telecommunications equipment, but the source material says no written root-cause report has been released. The FAA’s initial statement was explicitly preliminary and subject to change.
Mullin said officials had seen no evidence of a cyberattack and that the event appeared mechanically driven, while adding that investigators would not rule out other explanations. That leaves a cyberattack unconfirmed, not definitively excluded. The available material also does not establish exactly how many cancellations or delays were caused by the ground stop, as opposed to other operating conditions that day.
Investigation and System Funding Ahead
The FAA said technicians were investigating the communications issue, but the source material gives no date for a final technical report or details of a further public briefing. The agency’s preliminary statement may be updated as investigators establish what failed and how the affected facilities recovered.
Duffy has argued that Congress should provide $50 billion for a new system and warned that similar disruptions could happen again without modernization. That is a funding proposal and a warning from the transportation secretary, not confirmation that another stop is scheduled or inevitable. Congress’s response, the FAA’s findings and any changes to the system remain pending.
Key Questions
How long did the FAA’s nationwide ground stop last?
The FAA advisory times run from 3:53 p.m. ET to 8:16 p.m. ET on Nov. 13, a period of about four hours and 23 minutes. Duffy said the airspace reopened at about 8:15 p.m.
What caused the flight halt?
Duffy said radar and communications at air traffic facilities became unstable, with older telecom switches and routers overloaded with data. The FAA described communications issues affecting multiple centers, but a written root-cause report has not been published.
Was the disruption caused by a cyberattack?
That has not been established. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officials had seen zero evidence of a cyberattack, but said investigators were not ruling one out.
Were all flights grounded, including emergency flights?
The order stopped departing traffic nationwide, with inbound international flights handled case by case. Duffy said medevac, life-saving cargo and law enforcement flights were allowed to keep operating.
How many cancellations were linked to the stop?
The supplied FlightAware figures count 9,159 cancellations within, into or out of the United States on Friday and 3,515 more by 7:58 a.m. ET Saturday. These totals include all cancellations during those periods; they do not isolate cancellations caused by the FAA ground stop.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
