The Federal Aviation Administration cleared flights to depart US airports at about 8:15 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, November 13, lifting a nationwide ground stop that lasted more than four hours. A communications outage at air traffic control centers had forced the agency to halt departures on Friday afternoon.
The FAA issued the order at 3:54 p.m. Eastern. It instructed airports across the country to hold departing aircraft while controllers handled incoming international flights individually. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the communications problem affected all Air Route Traffic Control Centers, which guide aircraft between airports.
Hundreds of flights turned back or diverted
By 7:05 p.m. Eastern, 670 flights had returned to their departure airports and another 157 had diverted to alternate airports, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Washington Dulles, Los Angeles, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky and Nashville were among the airports that received diverted flights, the Associated Press reported.
At Chicago O’Hare, travelers emerging from security found delays across the departure boards. In Los Angeles, an Alaska Airlines flight carrying passengers home to Washington was already taxiing when it came to a halt.
Airlines still faced delays after the FAA lifted the order. Diverted aircraft and their crews had to get back to the airports where they were scheduled to start their next flights. Travelers can check airport-wide delays on the FAA’s national airspace status page and contact their airline for updates on a specific flight.
Officials investigate air traffic communications failure
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters that officials believed the introduction of new technology had overwhelmed part of the older air traffic control system. He said investigators had found no indication of a cyberattack. The precise cause was still under investigation Friday evening.
Friday’s order was the first nationwide FAA ground stop since January 2023, when an agency computer system failed. Individual airlines have halted departures during other outages. In July 2024, for example, a global technology outage grounded flights operated by American, Delta, United and Allegiant.
Greece experienced a similar disruption in January 2026, when a communications failure grounded flights across the country. Controllers in the Athens Flight Information Region could no longer safely coordinate takeoffs and landings. A Greek government inquiry later traced the radio failure to aging infrastructure.
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