US Nationwide Flight Ground Stop: What Happened, What Officials Said and How Many Flights Were Canceled

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted all departing flights at US airports on Friday, November 13, 2026. The FAA said the order, issued at about 3:54pm, followed communications problems at several of its air traffic control centers. It lifted the order at 8:15pm, more than four hours later, according to Al Jazeera and CNBC.

What the FAA and Officials Said

The FAA said it issued the ground stop “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” It first described a “temporary telecommunications outage,” CNBC reported, and said it acted out of an abundance of caution.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters that problems began at about 3:36pm, with instability in radar and communications. He said the system’s switches and routers became overloaded with data and returned inconsistent information. He said air traffic control facilities experienced intermittent outages of radar and communications, but that radar and communications were never completely lost. He attributed the problems to aging equipment and said officials were still working to determine what went wrong. Axios reported that neither Duffy nor Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin specified the exact initial cause.

Mullin said there was no indication of a cyberattack. Asked about it, he said officials were still investigating and were not ruling anything out, ABC7 reported. He said there was no connection to the global Microsoft outage that began Thursday, CBS News reported. Axios reported that officials were also examining incompatibilities between older equipment and newer technology being installed.

The Associated Press reported that the problems did not appear to be linked to the FAA’s new AI-powered air traffic management system. The system’s developer, Air Space Intelligence, said its technology was not responsible, Al Jazeera reported.

Flights Affected

FlightAware counted more than 10,000 delays and more than 4,000 cancellations on Friday, CBS News reported. Axios reported more than 6,000 cancellations by 9pm. As of Saturday morning, FlightAware counted 3,374 cancellations and 1,008 delays that day, and 12,506 cancellations across Friday and Saturday, Good Morning America reported. The Associated Press reported that JetBlue canceled all of its remaining domestic flights on Friday evening.

CNBC reported that it was the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, which followed a failure of a pilot communication system, and that delays and cancellations were expected to continue into the weekend.

Read also: Microsoft apologises as global outage disrupts services for nearly 24 hours, and German companies unprepared for AI-based cyber attacks.

Source: CNBC; Al Jazeera; NPR; Axios; CBS News; NBC News; Good Morning America; AP via U.S. News. Published November 13 to 14, 2026.

Photo by Pim de Boer on Unsplash