2026 FAA nationwide ground stop
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| Date | November 13, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Time | 15:54 – 20:15 (EST) |
| Duration | 4 hours and 21 minutes |
| Location |
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| Type | Nationwide ground stop |
| Cause | Communication issues involving area control centers |
On November 13, 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a nationwide ground stop when a communications failure reported in the Chicago area was found to be affecting multiple systems across the National Airspace System. It lasted three and a half hours, issued at 20:54 UTC (15:54 EST) and lifted at 01:19 UTC the following day. Similar to the 2023 FAA system outage, flights in the air were allowed to continue to their destination and some flights were allowed to depart on a case-by-case basis, but nearly 3,500 scheduled flights were not permitted to take off until the source of the disruption was identified and resolved.
The US government blamed the communications outage on an ill-behaved router that had been newly installed as part of an upgrade from copper wire telecommunication to optical fiber. According to the U.S. Transportation Secretary, the router was sending a thousand connection attempts every four to five seconds, disrupting aircraft communication and radar feeds. As of November 14, 2026[update], the root cause of the behavior was still under investigation.
Background
Although the United States has more air traffic than any other country, its infrastructure has long been in need of modernization and has fallen significantly behind the infrastructure of first-world countries. The US air traffic control infrastructure is so old that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has trouble procuring parts for legacy systems, which use copper wire, floppy disks, and antique keyboards. The US has taken 25 years so far in its quest to replace copper wire with optical fiber, whereas in Canada the process has been largely completed in only 18 months. Similarly, it has taken the United States forty years to phase out paper-based flight progress strips, whereas Canada achieved it in two years.
Effects
The ground stop halted departures from airports in the United States. Domestic flights that were already airborne at the time of the advisory were allowed to fly to their planned destination, while international flights were handled "on a case-by-case basis" once they approached the US, per the FAA. Gates at major airports soon filled up, necessitating some incoming planes to be diverted to smaller nearby airports. US-bound departures from Europe were suspended from 17:00 to 00:00 EST. In Mexico, the Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC) asked that all US-bound aircraft at Mexican airports remain on the ground until US authorities allowed flights to resume.
The ground stop caused nearly 8,000 cancellations and more than 10,000 flights to be delayed across the United States, including cargo flights. The outage also affected international flights that transited United States airspace, including the heavy seasonal air traffic between Canada and Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. During the outage, Amtrak reported higher-than-normal phone and web page traffic as stranded airline passengers sought alternatives.
Several National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, National Football League, and college football teams were forced to change their travel plans—taking buses or later flights—in order to reach their weekend games. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy specifically advised football teams, many of which travel on charter flights, to "reach out to the FAA".
Flights between the United Kingdom and the United States were also affected by the disruption. On the morning of 14 November, 29 flights between London Heathrow Airport and the United States had been cancelled, while a further 19 departing flights from Heathrow were delayed. At London Gatwick Airport, three incoming flights from Orlando were also cancelled. The UK Civil Aviation Authority warned that disruption could continue as airlines rebooked affected passengers. Manchester Airport, however, said it did not expect significant delays, while Gatwick Airport anticipated only limited disruption.
Flights permitted to depart
Flights within Alaska and within Hawaii were permitted to depart, as were non-US-mainland flights out of Hawaii.
Two hours after the advisory was issued, at 15:00 PST, Pacific-bound flights from San Francisco International Airport, including to Hawaii and Asia, were cleared to depart. Some trans-Atlantic flights from the East Coast were also allowed to depart. SpaceX was able to launch Starship flight 15 as planned, as the FAA had issued an airspace restriction around the Texas launch site prior to the outage.
Although the nationwide ground stop was lifted on Friday evening, its effects continued into Saturday, 14 November, when more than 2,500 additional flights were canceled and hundreds more were delayed as airlines worked to restore normal operations. Passengers continued to face disruptions, with some having to make alternative travel and accommodation arrangements. The Associated Press reported that the effects of the shutdown could continue for several days.
At the request of the FAA, flights from the 42 Eurocontrol member states to the US were suspended amid technical problems affecting air traffic control communications. The suspension applied to departures scheduled between 22:00 UTC on November 13 and 05:00 UTC on November 14.
Cause
The underlying cause was a telecommunication problem affecting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. Problems were noticed with radio frequencies[clarification needed] hours before the advisory. CBS News reported that "[a]n update to the private communications network that connects America's air traffic control system caused the system to reboot, leading to a crash and a communications outage".
At a White House briefing that evening, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that new FAA equipment and technology appeared to have overwhelmed older systems. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said switches and routers had become overloaded with data, producing inconsistent information. Mullin stated there was no indication of a "nefarious attack".
Early in the morning on Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the outage was potentially tied to L3Harris Technologies. L3Harris was reportedly using Cisco 600 routers, which malfunctioned due to a reported issue involving too much data. According to Sean Duffy, a newly installed router began to overload other routers with a thousand connection attempts every few seconds. The issue was connected to L3Harris's activities in switching communications infrastructure from copper wire to fiber optic at a remote FAA facility in southern Arkansas. L3Harris is the contractor charged with overseeing the Federal Aviation Administration Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI). The contractor had already completed roughly 70% of the conversion from copper to fiber. FAA administrator Bryan Bedford said this did not serve as a full explanation of the root cause of the problem.
Background
Reuters claimed that the National Weather Service had experienced a nationwide radar outage and telecommunication issues, but the NWS twitter account claimed this was the result of outdated static webpages and unrelated to the FAA outage. One regional NWS office reportedly confirmed a regional outage affecting weather radios, but denied there had been a national or radar outage.
On November 10, 2026, the FAA expanded an artificial intelligence (AI) air traffic management system, Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories (SMART), to all air centers. The FAA has denied this rollout as being a cause for the ground stop. Aviation experts Margaret Wallace and Walter Bayleaf agree it is likely unrelated. Markwayne Mullin, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), however, did not rule it out when initially addressing the press at the White House.
On November 12, 2026, Microsoft experienced a global outage, that continued into the morning of the same day as the FAA outage. When questioned by reporters, this was also dismissed as unrelated by Mullin.
No Canadian systems were affected by the outage; Nav Canada offered support for diverted planes during the ground stop. Domestic operations for Canadian airlines including Air Canada and WestJet were largely unaffected; significant disruptions occurred on flights to and from the US, however, as well as those that required only crossing US airspace.
Aftermath
Following the ground stop, Mullin and Duffy requested US$50 billion from Congress in order to overhaul the national air traffic control system. Duffy had previously lobbied Congress for $30 billion in funding on November 12, one day before the ground stop.
Due to the ground stop, Amtrak saw increased demand, resulting in issues for passengers booking trains.
Reactions
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the disruption to overloaded switches and routers in the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) ageing air traffic control system. He said the immediate problem had been resolved but called on Congress to provide an additional $50 billion to modernize the infrastructure, in addition to $12.5 billion already approved. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no evidence of a cyberattack or deliberate foreign interference and that more than 3,000 aircraft had landed safely during the disruption. Although Duffy demanded $50 billion from Congress, critics noted that as a Congressperson in 2019 he voted against $10 billion in FAA funding.
Several Democratic lawmakers called for an investigation into the failure. Representative Ted Lieu described the telecommunications outage as unacceptable and called for congressional hearings, while Senator Tammy Duckworth demanded answers from the FAA and a thorough investigation into the incident.
The Air Line Pilots Association said it was monitoring the situation in coordination with the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Airlines warned that delays and cancellations would continue after the ground stop was lifted as they worked to reposition aircraft and crews. According to Reuters, thousands of flights were cancelled, with the disruption expected to affect airline operations for several days.
The outage also raised questions about the FAA's recently expanded artificial intelligence-supported Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories (SMART) system. Its developer, Air Space Intelligence, denied that the technology had caused the disruption.