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TL;DR
The FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop on November 13 after problems affected radar and communications at air traffic control facilities. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the disruption to overloaded legacy equipment, while officials said they had seen no evidence of a cyberattack; the precise cause has not been established in a published root-cause report. The halt lasted about four hours and 23 minutes, disrupting flights in the United States and abroad.
The Federal Aviation Administration halted departures at U.S. airports on Friday, November 13, after communications problems affected multiple air traffic control centers, lifting the order about four hours and 23 minutes later. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said overloaded legacy equipment caused instability in radar and communications, but the FAA has not published a root-cause report, leaving the precise failure — and whether it could have been prevented — unsettled.
The FAA Command Center issued the nationwide order at 3:54 p.m. Eastern Time, citing “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” Its advisories show equipment-related problems in Chicago beforehand: at 3:21 p.m., the center warned of arrival delays and airborne holding at O’Hare, then restricted departures to O’Hare and Chicago Midway. The national order took effect at about 3:53 p.m. and was cancelled with an effective time of 8:16 p.m. Duffy said the airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m.
Duffy said the trouble began at 3:36 p.m. and affected radar and communications at en route centers and approach control facilities around the country. He described older analog telecommunications switches and routers as overloaded with data, producing inconsistent information. He also said this was not a total loss of radar or communications. The FAA’s public statement said communication issues affected multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers and that technicians were investigating; the agency marked its account preliminary and subject to change.
More than 3,500 aircraft were airborne when the halt began, according to Duffy, and fewer than 400 remained in the air by 8 p.m. The FAA allowed medevac flights, life-saving cargo and law enforcement flights to continue. Its advisories described airborne holding, longer periods for filed flight plans to remain active and a gradual, coordinated release of departures as facilities recovered. The disruption continued after the national order ended as airlines worked through aircraft and crew schedules.
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
How the Halt Affected Travelers
The order stopped most departures across the country, affecting passengers beyond the airports where the problems first appeared. FlightAware counted 9,159 cancellations within, into or out of the United States on Friday, and 9,896 cancellations overall that day. It counted another 3,515 on Saturday by 7:58 a.m. Eastern. These are daily totals: they include cancellations not necessarily caused by the ground stop, so they should not be read as a direct count of flights cancelled because of the FAA order.
The disruption also crossed national borders. According to the supplied reporting, Eurocontrol suspended U.S.-bound departures from its member states between 22:00 UTC November 13 and 05:00 UTC November 14 at the FAA’s request. BBC News reported that Sydney Airport held U.S.-bound flights and Air Canada cancelled flights between Canada and the United States. For travelers, the end of a ground stop does not immediately restore normal service: aircraft and crew can be out of position, creating further delays and cancellations.
The episode also matters because it exposed how dependent national air traffic operations are on communications infrastructure. A failure that officials say began at equipment serving control facilities led to restrictions across the national system. Whether the precise equipment failure can be replicated, and what safeguards would prevent a similar cascade, remain unanswered in the public information available so far.
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From Chicago Delays to Nationwide Stop
The FAA’s published advisories trace the disruption from Chicago-area equipment problems to a nationwide order. At 3:21 p.m. the Command Center cited equipment issues affecting O’Hare. At 3:28 p.m. it stopped departures to O’Hare from across the United States and several Canadian airports, listing “equipment / outage” and “comms issues.” Chicago Midway followed at 3:31 p.m. The FAA activated a diversion recovery tool for all airports at 3:30 p.m., before Duffy’s stated 3:36 p.m. start time for the broader problem.
After the national ground stop, advisories described nationwide communications failure and said flights would be released as en route facilities recovered, in coordination with the Command Center. The FAA’s 2023-commissioned review counted 21 en route centers, which largely manage aircraft flying between airports. That system context helps explain why a problem at control facilities could prompt a broad pause, though the public advisories do not provide a full technical account of how the failure spread.
Officials’ comments have also addressed speculation about a cyberattack, a Microsoft outage the day before and the FAA’s new SMART air traffic tool. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officials had seen no evidence of a cyberattack but would not rule one out. Duffy and the maker of SMART said the tool was not connected to the failed equipment. Those statements narrow the public account, but they are not a substitute for a completed technical investigation.
““ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED.””
— FAA Command Center advisory
Cause and Preventability Remain Open
No written root-cause report has been published, and the FAA’s initial statement was explicitly preliminary. Duffy’s account identifies overloaded analog switches and routers as the mechanism, but public information does not specify which components failed, why they became overloaded, how many facilities were affected in detail or what technical safeguards were in place. Without those findings, it is not possible to establish whether a particular upgrade, maintenance change or backup system would have prevented the halt.
The cyber question is also unresolved in the formal public record. Mullin said officials had seen no evidence of a cyberattack, while saying they would not rule one out. Duffy and SMART’s maker said the AI traffic tool was not connected to the failed equipment. The available material does not provide a final investigative finding on cyber involvement or a detailed independent assessment of SMART’s role. It also does not establish that the previous day’s Microsoft outage had any connection to the FAA problem.
Flight cancellation totals need similar care: the cited Friday and Saturday figures cover all cancellations in the stated periods, not just those attributed to the ground stop. The number of passengers affected is not given, and the available account does not quantify the financial cost or identify which individual cancellations resulted directly from the FAA order.
FAA Investigation and System Funding
The immediate next step is the FAA’s investigation into the communications and radar instability, including the equipment involved and how facilities recovered. The agency has not announced in the supplied material when a final report will be released. Until it does, officials’ explanations remain preliminary, and the public cannot judge from those statements alone whether the failure was preventable or how likely a recurrence is.
Duffy has argued that replacing the existing system requires congressional funding, naming $50 billion as the amount he wants. The source material does not say that Congress has approved that request or provide a funding timetable. Any decision to modernize the system, and the scope and schedule of such work, remain to be determined.
Passengers with disrupted trips should continue to check directly with their airline, as the end of the FAA order did not immediately clear the accumulated scheduling problems. The FAA’s advisories show that individual airport and airline restrictions continued into the night. Further updates should clarify the technical cause, the number of cancellations directly linked to the stop and what changes, if any, officials plan to make.
Key Questions
Why did the FAA halt departures nationwide?
The FAA cited communication issues affecting multiple air traffic control centers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said overloaded legacy switches and routers caused instability in radar and communications. A published final root-cause report was not available in the source material.
How long did the nationwide ground stop last?
The FAA advisories give an event time from about 3:53 p.m. to 8:16 p.m. Eastern on November 13, or roughly four hours and 23 minutes. Duffy said the airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m.
Was the disruption caused by a cyberattack?
Officials had not established that. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said they had seen “zero evidence” of a cyberattack, while adding that they would not rule one out. The public account remained preliminary.
How many flights were cancelled because of the halt?
The cited figures do not isolate cancellations caused by the ground stop. FlightAware counted 9,159 cancellations within, into or out of the United States on Friday and 3,515 more on Saturday by 7:58 a.m. Eastern; those are all-cause daily counts, not confirmed totals attributable to the FAA order.
Could the halt have been avoided?
That is not yet known. Duffy attributed the problem to overloaded legacy equipment and argued for a new system, but no final technical report has established the root cause, identified a specific preventive measure or confirmed whether a system upgrade would have avoided the halt.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
