FAA Lifts Nationwide Flight Ground Stop After Communications Outage

The Federal Aviation Administration allowed departures to resume on November 13, 2026, after grounding flights nationwide because of communication failures at local air traffic control hubs. The halt lasted about four hours and disrupted travel across the United States, with cancellations and delays expected to continue as airlines worked through the backlog.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the communications issue affected the 22 regional centers that direct planes traveling between airports. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said a telecommunications service failure caused the disruption, adding that officials had no indication it stemmed from a cyberattack or other deliberate threat. He also said it was unrelated to a Microsoft outage on November 12, 2026.

More than 1.5 million passengers were affected, and thousands of flights faced disruption. By 7:05 p.m. Eastern time, 827 flights had been diverted: 670 returned to their original airports and 157 landed elsewhere. Some international flights were handled individually, while certain flights within Alaska and Hawaii were not affected.

The FAA’s nationwide ground stop was the first since a computer-system failure in January 2023 and only the second since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Flights already in the air continued, while airlines prepared to resume departures once the restriction ended. The disruption also delayed cargo flights and left sports teams and travelers waiting for plans to resume.