The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a rare nationwide ground stop on Friday evening after more than four hours, allowing some flight departures to resume following a telecommunications failure tied to outdated equipment.
The agency issued the ground stop around 3:54 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, November 13, citing “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” It halted all departing flights at U.S. airports while managing inbound international flights case by case. Aircraft already airborne continued to their destinations. The order affected facilities handling traffic over Chicago, New York, Boston, and elsewhere, including departures at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and Paine Field (PAE). The FAA confirmed the ground stop was canceled at 8:15 p.m. ET after testing.
“The safety of the flying public is always the FAA’s highest priority. The FAA lifted the ground stop and some flight departures are resuming,” the FAA released in a statement. “Before clearing flights to resume, we thoroughly tested our systems to confirm they were stable and that operations remain reliable. Passengers should contact their airlines for flight updates.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the issue to the nation’s legacy air traffic control infrastructure during a White House briefing. Instability in radar data and communications began at 3:36 p.m. ET at Terminal Radar Approach Control facilities (TRACONs) and En Route Centers.
Update from The White House https://t.co/pNjkz3znSB
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) November 14, 2026
“Our switches, our routers actually got overloaded with data and they started to give us inconsistency in the data from those routers, and because of that we shut the system down,” Duffy said.
He described the equipment as “TDM telecom—so this is analog telecom” using “1980s little copper lines” and noted that newer IP switches already installed did not fail. More than 3,500 aircraft were airborne when the stop began; the number fell below 400 as controllers used established procedures to land planes safely.
Duffy stressed that the system did not lose all radar or telecommunications capabilities, and critical medical, cargo, and law-enforcement flights continued. He warned recovery would be gradual: “At 8:15 tonight, Eastern Time, we’ve opened up the airspace. Now, does that mean every flight is going to fly right now? It’s going to be slow.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was “zero evidence that this is a cyberattack or an SI attack” and “no chatter” or digital footprints indicating intrusion. “Everybody’s safe. There is no reason to be concerned about your loved ones if they’re flying or anything like that,” he told reporters, adding that the public “was never in danger.” Multiple agencies, including the NSA, Department of War components, and CISA, continue will continue to investigate.
Mullin called the outdated system a “national security risk” resulting from years of delayed congressional funding.
Duffy used the incident to renew calls for a full modernization, requesting $50 billion in emergency funding—up from a prior $30 billion ask.
“What we have is an incredibly old air traffic control system,” he said. “Let’s not do a patchwork fix to a system that’s critical for every single family. It’s not red, it’s not blue, it’s not Democrat, it’s not Republican, it’s American.”
The disruption has resulted in thousands of cancellations and delays nationwide, with effects expected to continue into the weekend.
The previous ground stop occurred in January 2023 due to a NOTAM system failure, and the last full grounding of all departures was after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Author: Mario Lotmore
