Kumar Bahukhandi
Travellers wait inside a US airport terminal on Friday, 13 November 2026, as an air traffic control communications outage disrupts flights nationwide. Photo: AP
The Federal Aviation Administration halted departures across the United States for more than four hours on Friday. Thousands of flights were cancelled, and disruption continued after take-offs resumed.
Washington: The US Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop on Friday evening, 13 November, after a communications outage at air traffic control centres forced it to suspend departures across the country. Aircraft already in the air were allowed to land while the order was in effect.
The FAA issued the order at 3.54 pm Eastern time, shortly after halting traffic in Chicago over communications problems. It was the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when a failure in an FAA computer system prompted a shorter suspension of domestic departures.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said older equipment had become overloaded, leading to intermittent gaps in communications and radar coverage. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officials had found no indication of a cyberattack and were still investigating the outage.
FlightAware recorded nearly 5,000 cancellations on Friday evening, and the disruption extended to international routes. Air Canada cancelled its remaining Friday services between Canada and the United States. Duffy said restoring full capacity would take time.
