FAA Lifts Nationwide Ground Stop After Four-Hour ATC Outage
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a rare nationwide ground stop on Friday, November 13–14, 2026, after a data overload disrupted air traffic control communications and radar across the United States. Officials described the incident as a stark reminder of the fragility of the nation’s aviation infrastructure.
The FAA issued the ground stop at 20:54 UTC after switches and routers became overloaded and began sending inconsistent data to air traffic controllers. At the lowest point, just 336 flights worldwide were in the air bound for U.S. airports, compared with a normal volume of more than 3,600. The ground stop was lifted at 01:15 UTC, after system testing confirmed operations were stable.
The disruption led to nearly 10,000 flight cancellations to and from U.S. airports through Saturday. Cancellations included:
- Delta Air Lines: more than 2,200 flights
- American Airlines: more than 2,200 flights
- United Airlines: 1,800 flights
- Southwest Airlines: nearly 1,400 flights
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the outage was caused by overloaded routers and was not a cyberattack. Flight operations are expected to remain disrupted through the weekend as airlines work to restore their schedules.
Source: Flightradar24 — US Nationwide Ground Stop Lifted