🔍 Read the full analysis: The FAA Flight Halt: Four Hours Of Disruption And Lingering Questions on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
The FAA halted departures from U.S. airports on Nov. 13 after officials reported instability in radar and communications systems. The stop lasted about four hours and 23 minutes; officials said they had seen no evidence of a cyberattack, but the FAA has not published a written root-cause report.
The Federal Aviation Administration halted departures at U.S. airports on Friday, Nov. 13, after reported problems with radar and communications at air traffic facilities disrupted operations nationwide. The stop began at about 3:53 p.m. ET and was cancelled at 8:16 p.m., a period of roughly four hours and 23 minutes that caused extensive flight disruption while officials worked to restore service.
FAA Command Center advisories show the trouble first appearing in Chicago. At 3:21 p.m., the agency cited equipment issues as it warned of arrival delays and airborne holding at O’Hare. At 3:28 p.m., it stopped departures to O’Hare from airports across the United States and several in Canada, citing “EQUIPMENT / OUTAGE” and “COMMS ISSUES.” Midway departures were stopped shortly afterward. The Command Center then issued a nationwide order: “ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the FAA experienced instability in radar and communications at en route centers and approach control facilities. He described older analog telecommunications switches and routers as overloaded with data, producing inconsistent information. Duffy said the system had not suffered a total blackout: “We didn’t lose all telecom we didn’t lose all radar.” The FAA’s initial statement said communication issues were affecting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers and that technicians were investigating; it described the information as preliminary and subject to change.
Duffy said more than 3,500 aircraft were airborne when the stop began, falling to fewer than 400 by 8 p.m. ET. Medevac flights, life-saving cargo and law enforcement flights were permitted to continue. The FAA began cancelling the nationwide stop at 8:16 p.m.; Duffy said airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m. The differing timestamps reflect the reported announcement and advisory times. FlightAware counted 9,159 cancellations within, into or out of the United States on Friday and 3,515 more by 7:58 a.m. Saturday. Those figures cover all cancellations in those periods, not only flights attributed to the FAA order.
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
Delays Reached Beyond U.S. Airports
The halt affected far more than flights waiting to depart from U.S. terminals. When aircraft and crews are displaced, airlines must reposition planes, arrange replacement crews and rebuild schedules, so disruption can continue after a restriction ends. The subsequent airport- and airline-specific ground stops show that reopening the national system did not immediately restore normal operations everywhere.
International travel was also affected. At the FAA’s request, Eurocontrol suspended US-bound departures from its member states between 22:00 UTC on Nov. 13 and 05:00 UTC on Nov. 14, according to a notice reported by Xinhua. BBC News reported that Sydney Airport held flights bound for the United States and that Air Canada cancelled flights between Canada and the U.S. The event exposed how a communications problem within U.S. air traffic operations can disrupt passengers and carriers well outside the country.
For travellers, the cancellation of the national stop was not a guarantee that a particular flight would depart on time. For companies that rely on air freight or business travel, the episode also underscored the economic consequences of an interruption lasting hours. The full financial cost and the precise number of cancellations caused specifically by the stop have not been established in the cited figures.
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Chicago Delays Preceded the National Order
The Command Center’s public advisories trace a progression from local disruption to a nationwide restriction. Before equipment was cited, other Friday delays and ground stops referred to wind, low clouds or traffic volume. Chicago was the first location named in an equipment-related advisory, with O’Hare affected before Midway. By 3:30 p.m., the FAA had activated a diversion recovery tool for all airports; at 3:54 p.m., it issued the national stop, whose event time was listed as 3:53 p.m.
Later advisories documented measures to manage the interruption. At 4:20 p.m., the FAA warned of airborne holding at any airport. A minute later, it extended flight-plan drop times for all en route centers to 240 minutes, keeping plans active longer while aircraft waited. At 5:46 p.m., the agency said flights could depart as en route facilities recovered, through coordination with the Command Center. By 7:37 p.m., some coastal facilities were releasing some international departures.
The FAA operates 21 en route centers, according to a 2023 FAA-commissioned review. These centers primarily manage aircraft flying between airports. The advisories indicate that the response involved coordination and staged releases as facilities recovered, rather than a single moment when every part of the system returned to normal.
““ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED.””
— FAA Command Center advisory
The Root Cause Remains Unpublished
Officials have not released a written root-cause report, and the FAA’s initial account was explicitly preliminary. Duffy attributed the instability to overloaded older switches and routers, but the available material does not establish the precise technical failure, what triggered it, or why it affected facilities across the country. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officials had seen no evidence of a cyberattack and that the problem appeared mechanical, while also saying they would not rule out a cyberattack.
Duffy and the maker of the FAA’s new SMART traffic tool said SMART was not connected to the equipment involved. That addresses one proposed explanation, but does not by itself establish the full cause. It is also unclear how many of the reported cancellations were directly caused by the stop, how much the disruption cost airlines and passengers, or whether every affected facility returned to normal at the same time.
FAA Review and Modernization Debate
The next key development is a fuller technical account from the FAA identifying what failed, how the problem spread and what steps are being taken to prevent a recurrence. Until that account is published, the public record consists of the agency’s preliminary statement, the operational advisories and officials’ explanations.
Duffy has argued that the incident points to a need for a replacement system and said he wants Congress to provide $50 billion. His warning that similar disruptions may occur without new funding is a forecast, not a finding in a completed investigation. Congress’s response, any FAA modernization plan and the agency’s final explanation remain to be seen. Airlines and travellers, meanwhile, should expect the effects of a large-scale interruption to continue as carriers restore aircraft and crew schedules.
Key Questions
How long did the FAA ground stop last?
The FAA’s advisories place the event from about 3:53 p.m. to 8:16 p.m. ET on Nov. 13, 2026, or roughly four hours and 23 minutes. Duffy said the airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m.
What did officials say caused the disruption?
Duffy said radar and communications at air traffic facilities became unstable, describing older telecommunications equipment as overloaded with data. The FAA has not yet published a written root-cause report, so the complete technical explanation remains unknown.
Was the FAA disruption caused by a cyberattack?
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officials had seen “zero evidence” of a cyberattack and that the problem appeared mechanical. He also said officials were not ruling a cyberattack out.
How many flights were cancelled?
FlightAware counted 9,159 cancellations within, into or out of the United States on Friday and 3,515 more by 7:58 a.m. Saturday. These are all-cause daily counts, not figures limited to cancellations caused by the ground stop.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
