FAA Nationwide Ground Stop: Longest U.S. Flight Halt Since 9/11 Leaves Thousands of Flights Canceled Into Saturday

The FAA halted departures at all U.S. airports for more than four hours on Friday after radar and communications instability at air traffic control centers, the longest nationwide ground stop since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to Reuters. More than 3,000 U.S. flights were canceled by early Saturday as airlines worked to reposition planes and crews, according to FlightAware.

Nov 14, 2026 - 08:24

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Air travel across the United States was still recovering on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, after the Federal Aviation Administration halted departures nationwide for more than four hours on Friday because of communications and radar problems at the country's air traffic control centers. The FAA said in a statement that it had issued "a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following communication issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers." Reuters reported that the halt was the longest such shutdown since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

How the ground stop unfolded

At a White House briefing on Friday evening, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the trouble began at 3:36 p.m., when air traffic control centers experienced instability in radar and communications systems, the Guardian reported. An FAA notice said the stop was imposed "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety." Duffy announced the order publicly on X at 4:16 p.m., NBC News reported, writing that it followed "a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers."

"We didn't lose all telecom, we didn't lose all radar," Duffy told reporters, according to NBC News. "But that instability, because of an abundance of caution and making sure we keep the American public safe, we did the ground stop." He said about 3,500 planes were in the air when the order was issued.

Duffy said the airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m. Eastern time. "It's going to be slow," he said, according to Reuters. The FAA said that before clearing flights to resume, "we thoroughly tested our systems to confirm they were stable and that operations remain reliable." According to MPR News, the previous nationwide ground stop came in January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned.

What officials say caused the failure

Duffy blamed aging equipment. "What we have is an incredibly old air traffic control system," he said. "We have TDM telecoms, so this is analog telecom," he said. "Our switches, our routers, actually got overloaded with data." He said the routers "started to give us inconsistency in the data," and that newer switches had worked while the old hardware went down, NBC News reported. According to CNN, as cited by the Guardian, the FAA told airlines the router malfunctions were believed to have originated at Chicago Midway International Airport and rippled across the country. Two airline officials told Reuters the outage appeared to affect a telecommunications network overseen by L3Harris Technologies; the company did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said new equipment being added to the system had overwhelmed the older parts of it. "That new equipment, new technology just wasn't — it was overwhelming the older system," he said, according to NBC News. Mullin told Reuters there was "zero evidence" so far of a cyberattack or a rogue AI system, though investigators had not ruled out either possibility. "It appears this was mechanically driven. However, we're still looking," he said, adding that the National Security Agency was assisting the Department of Homeland Security. Mullin also ruled out any link to the global Microsoft outage that began Thursday, the BBC reported, and Microsoft said it had "no indication" the ground stop was related to its services, Anadolu Agency reported.

NBC News noted that the FAA had said this week that its new SMART traffic management platform, which uses AI to help inform routing and scheduling recommendations, was active nationwide. NBC reported that it was not clear whether the platform was related to the outage, and Mullin said, "You just can't rule out anything at this point."

Thousands of flights canceled

Tallies of the disruption varied by tracker and time. Flightradar24 counted nearly 10,000 canceled flights by 11:30 p.m. Friday, including more than 2,200 each at Delta Air Lines and American Airlines and 1,800 at United Airlines, Reuters reported, adding that some aircraft at major airports had waited more than five hours for a gate. CNBC, citing FlightAware, reported about 9,000 U.S. cancellations and more than 7,000 delays on Friday, noting that some were caused by bad weather. By 5:45 a.m. ET Saturday, more than 3,000 U.S. flights had been canceled for the day and close to 1,000 delayed, according to FlightAware.

Delta said that "it will take time to reset our operation, including the positioning of aircraft and crews." American said it was prioritizing flights to international destinations and smaller cities outside its hubs, Reuters reported, and JetBlue warned that it expected "disruptions to continue into tomorrow, including additional cancellations." Delta and United offered travel waivers, FOX 5 New York reported.

The effects reached beyond U.S. borders. The BBC reported that all U.S.-bound air traffic from Eurocontrol member states was suspended, that several Heathrow flights to the United States were canceled or delayed and that Air Canada canceled flights between the two countries. Sports teams also scrambled, and CNBC reported that the Southeastern Conference moved some games to Sunday.

Funding fight and passenger rights

Duffy and Mullin used the briefing to press Congress for money. Duffy said Trump has "asked for $30 billion," adding, "I want $50 billion," according to NBC News, which cited Reuters in noting that Congress approved $12.5 billion over five years last year for air traffic control upgrades. "This is what happens when Congress kicks the can down the road," Mullin said, according to a Department of Homeland Security release. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the episode an "unprecedented breakdown" and blamed what he described as the administration's "failed leadership," NBC News reported.

Airlines must offer free rebooking or a refund to passengers whose flights were canceled, but FOX 5 reported that a Transportation Department rule effective Oct. 19 lists "government system failures" among events not considered within an airline's control, limiting compensation. Duffy told reporters he expected the system to be "back up and operational" in time for Thanksgiving travel.