The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a rare nationwide ground stop for all aircraft scheduled to depart from U.S. airports, effective approximately 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, November 13, 2026.
According to a statement released by the FAA, the decision was prompted by "a temporary telecommunications outage" affecting air traffic control systems across the United States. The agency confirmed that every flight has been accounted for and noted that international flights would be managed on a case-by-case basis.
What Caused the Outage?
The root cause of the communications failure remains unclear. In an interview with reporters outside the White House, Markwayne Mullin, former U.S. Senator from Oklahoma and now head of the Department of Homeland Security, stated there is no indication that the incident involved any form of nefarious activity or cyberattack. He emphasized that preliminary assessments do not point to malicious intent behind the outage.
To date, there are no public reports confirming that the telecommunications issue has been resolved. The FAA has provided no timeline for when operations will resume, nor a clear explanation of how long the ground stop may last.
Impact on Flights
The ground-stop order requires all aircraft to remain grounded and prohibits takeoffs at U.S. airports. However, planes already in flight have generally been permitted to continue their journeys under existing protocols, with priority given to ensuring safe landings.
Data from FlightAware shows 10,543 flights were delayed or rerouted within, into, or out of the United States by Friday evening — including over 3,580 cancellations. The FAA manages more than 14,000 air traffic controllers who oversee approximately 44,000 daily departures across American airspace.
Historical Context
This is only the second nationwide ground stop for all domestic departures since the September 11 attacks. The previous instance occurred in January 2023 and lasted less than two hours. This current event marks a significant escalation due to its scale and duration.
The incident underscores vulnerabilities within U.S. aviation communications infrastructure but does not confirm any breach of security or systemic failure at this time. All information presented here is based on official statements from the FAA and public reports by The Guardian, with no independent verification conducted beyond these sources.