FAA orders nationwide ground stop after communications outage, thousands of flights canceled

What happened

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop for all departing U.S. flights on Friday, November 13, 2026, after a telecommunications outage disrupted communications with some planes and radar. The FAA said the ground stop was issued "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety." Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said controllers began seeing inconsistencies in radar data and communications with aircraft at 3:36 p.m. ET, and the FAA issued the ground stop at 3:54 p.m. ET. The FAA lifted the ground stop at 8:15 p.m. ET Friday.

Cause and response

Duffy said the outage began while L3Harris Technologies, which runs the network, was doing routine work to switch lines from copper wire to fiber at a remote FAA site. A router involved in the work flooded the rest of the system, disrupting communications with airplanes and radar. Duffy said officials are working to determine "whether we had incompetence" by the contractor or a faulty router. "Until I can build" a new network, he said, "I'm stuck with L3Harris."

L3Harris said it is "supporting the FAA in its investigation" and "takes the nationwide ground stop and its impact on travelers, airlines and air traffic operations seriously." The company did not address Duffy's criticism or say what went wrong.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of a cyberattack. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said there is "zero evidence of anything nefarious and zero evidence of anything AI related."

Impact

More than 5,000 U.S. flights had been canceled Saturday as of 2:48 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware. American canceled the most flights, 892, followed by Delta (734), United (733) and Southwest (540). JetBlue canceled 43% of its schedule. About 12,000 flights couldn't be completed during the ground stop, Bedford said. The FAA said schedules should be back to normal by the end of Sunday.

Why it matters

The outage exposed weaknesses in the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI), the private network connecting air traffic control centers, towers and radar sites. A 2023 FAA-commissioned safety review called the network obsolete. Duffy is pressing Congress for more money to replace the system, saying President Trump has asked for $30 billion and Duffy has said he wants $50 billion, on top of the $12.5 billion Congress approved last year.

Sources

• yahoo.com: FAA ground stop latest updates: Controllers’ union chief says communications with some planes were disrupted; cancellations top 5,000; Duffy blames L3Harris
• cbsnews.com: FAA lifts nationwide ground stop that disrupted thousands of flights; White House says no indication of "nefarious act" - CBS News
• wcvb.com: Flights are taking off this morning after nationwide ground stop - WCVB
• nbcnews.com: FAA lifts ground stop hours after stranding thousands of flights across the U.S.

This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.