FAA Orders Nationwide Ground Stop, Halting All U.S. Departures After Air Traffic Control Communications Failure

admin · November 13, 2026 · 7 min read

Commercial airplanes parked at gates on an airport tarmac at dusk during the FAA nationwide ground stop, with an air traffic control tower in the background

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop on Friday afternoon, halting every departing flight in the United States after a communications failure struck the air traffic control system. The order, issued at 3:54 p.m. Eastern time, told airlines that no aircraft on the ground could take off until further notice, while flights already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations and land.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the stop followed “a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers,” the 22 regional facilities that guide aircraft through high-altitude airspace across the country. FAA technicians were investigating the problem, and neither the agency nor the Transportation Department had confirmed a cause or said when departures would resume.

What happened

The FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center issued Advisory 111, titled “National Ground Stop,” at 3:54 p.m. Eastern. Its text read: “Due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety. Attention all aircraft operators, by order of the Federal Aviation Command Center all airports are ground stopped. All departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice.”

The advisory listed an effective period running to 11:30 p.m. Eastern, but the order itself holds departures until further notice, and the listed end time is not a promise that flights will resume then. International flights inbound to the United States were being managed on a case-by-case basis, according to the FAA.

The nationwide order came shortly after the agency halted traffic in Chicago because of air traffic control communications problems. An earlier advisory had stopped flights bound for O’Hare from 3:10 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern, citing an equipment outage and communications issues.

Duffy posted on X at 4:16 p.m. Eastern that the FAA “issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.” An FAA spokesperson likewise cited “communication issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers” and confirmed technicians were investigating.

Scale of the disruption

Flight-tracking service Flightradar24 said about 3,100 aircraft were airborne and bound for U.S. airports at 4:19 p.m. Eastern, with no additional aircraft taking off. By 4:30 p.m., FlightAware counted 6,575 delays and 331 cancellations on flights within, into or out of the United States on Friday, and those numbers were expected to climb as the stop continued into the evening.

American Airlines told customers at 4:24 p.m. Eastern that “the FAA is working to resolve a technical issue affecting telecommunications at many air traffic control facilities across the country.”

The picture shifted during the late afternoon. The FAA’s National Airspace System status page, updated at 4:26 p.m. Eastern, no longer listed a nationwide ground stop, showing instead ground stops at Chicago O’Hare and Midway. Some online accounts claimed the national stop had been lifted, but the FAA had made no official announcement of a resumption as of late Friday afternoon, and Duffy later confirmed the cause was a communications failure across the country’s air traffic control centers. Travelers were advised to check directly with their airlines and the FAA’s status page before relying on an earlier departure time.

Background: only the second nationwide stop since 9/11

Friday’s order was only the second nationwide ground stop of all departures since the September 11, 2001, attacks, according to Reuters. The first came on January 11, 2023, when a failure of the Notice to Air Missions system, which provides safety information to flight crews, forced the FAA to pause domestic departures while it validated flight-safety data.

The communications breakdown also lands in the middle of a long-running debate over the FAA’s aging infrastructure. Congress approved $12.5 billion last year to fix the agency’s aging communications system, and on Friday the FAA and the White House asked Congress for another $30.1 billion to address other issues, Reuters reported.

It is not the first aviation disruption to make national news this week. Earlier in the week, a British Airways Boeing 787 was grounded in Pittsburgh, and Microsoft’s global 365 outage disrupted email, Teams and Copilot for a second day, underlining how quickly a single system failure can ripple through infrastructure Americans rely on every day.

Why this matters

A nationwide ground stop is one of the most disruptive tools in the FAA’s arsenal, and it is used only when controllers cannot guarantee safe separation between aircraft. The Air Route Traffic Control Centers handle aircraft once they climb out of airport airspace, so a communications failure across all of them removes the backbone of the system that keeps high-altitude traffic moving.

For travelers, the immediate effect is a Friday-evening travel freeze at the start of a weekend, with delays likely to continue for hours after the stop lifts as aircraft and crews end up out of position and airlines rebuild their schedules. A ground stop is not, by itself, notice that a particular flight has been canceled, so passengers should check their airline’s latest flight status rather than assuming a trip is off.

For the FAA, the episode raises immediate questions about the resilience of the communications network that links its 22 en route centers, and about whether the funding Congress approved last year is reaching the systems that need it most.

Latest developments

As of late Friday afternoon, the FAA had not identified what caused the communications failure, had not said whether a cyberattack was suspected, and had given no estimate for when normal operations would resume. Officials have not said how many flights or passengers are affected. The agency said technicians were investigating and promised immediate updates as information became available.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a nationwide ground stop?
A ground stop is an FAA order that prevents aircraft from taking off. A nationwide ground stop applies to every airport in the country, so no departures are permitted anywhere until the order is lifted.

Can flights already in the air still land?
Yes. Friday’s order applied only to departures. Flights already airborne were allowed to continue to their destinations and land, and international flights inbound to the United States were handled on a case-by-case basis.

Why did the FAA order the ground stop?
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a communication issue was affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the facilities that guide high-altitude traffic. The FAA has not confirmed the underlying cause, and technicians are investigating.

When will flights resume?
The FAA has given no estimate. The advisory listed a window running to 11:30 p.m. Eastern on Friday, but the order holds departing traffic until further notice, so the listed time is not a promise of resumption. Travelers should check with their airline and the FAA’s National Airspace System status page.

The FAA’s nationwide ground stop brought American air travel to a standstill on Friday evening, and the question now is how quickly technicians can restore the communications links that keep the country’s skies moving — and what the failure reveals about the system underneath them.

Sources: