U.S. FAA ground stop LIVE updates: Nationwide ​halt ⁠to ‌flight ‌take-offs cancelled, FAA says

The United States on Friday (November 13, 2026) lifted an hours-long ground stop at the nation’s airports, with top officials explaining that the disruption was not due to a cyberattack or a sweeping Microsoft outage. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that U.S.

airspace was now “opened up,” and blamed “old hardware” for the travel chaos The nationwide stop left tens of thousands of passengers in limbo as more than 10,000 ‌flights were cancelled and delayed. The incident marked only the second time such an alert was given in U.S.

airspace since the 9/11 attacks. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no sign of a threat to the United States. Earlier, the FAA “issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centres,” the agency said.

“FAA technicians are investigating the issue.” In a subsequent message on X, the agency described the problem as “a temporary telecommunications outage” and said it was acting “out of an abundance of caution.” Friday’s (November 13, 2026) FAA order came a day after the U.S.

Transportation Secretary formally asked Congress for $30 billion to upgrade and modernise the U.S. Air Traffic Control System. U.S. ‌Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ⁠said on ‌Friday (November 13, 2026) that ‌he ‌had ⁠spoken ⁠with Donald Trump about the ‌aviation ground stop and ‌that the president was ⁠fully engaged on ‌the issue.

Mr. Duffy spoke ‌at a White House news ⁠conference. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ‌said a legacy air ⁠traffic control communications system became overloaded ‌and began issuing faulty data ‌prompting ‌a ⁠nationwide groundstop ⁠on Friday (November 13, 2026) that led to more than 10,000 ‌cancelled and delayed flights.

“Our switches, our routers, ‌actually got overloaded with data... They started ⁠to give us inconsistency in ‌the data ... and because of that, we shut the system ‌down,” Mr. Duffy said at a White House briefing, ⁠adding it had ⁠intermittent communication and intermittent ‌radar.

The United States on Friday (November 13, 2026) lifted an hours-long ground stop at the nation’s airports, with top officials explaining that the disruption was not due to a cyberattack or a sweeping Microsoft outage. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that U.S.

airspace was now “opened up,” and blamed “old hardware” for the travel chaos. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters there was “no cyberattack” and “no connection between this and Microsoft.” Soon after the ground stop, U.S.

Homeland Security chief Markwayne Mullin on Friday (November 13, 2026) had said there was no indication the country was under threat after a ground stop was issued at airports nationwide. But he told reporters at the White House after meeting President Donald Trump that authorities were still investigating -- and did not rule out a possible cyberattack.

“There was no indication, as of yet, that this was a nefarious attack against us, it’s just a telecommunication outage, as of right now,” Mr. Mullin said. “This isn’t another 9/11. I just can’t repeat that enough.” A ‌U.S.

halt ⁠to ‌airplane ‌takeoffs ‌that grounded ⁠thousands ⁠of flights ‌has been canceled, ‌the FAA ⁠said. Confusion reigned at airports across the United States on Friday (November 13, 2026), as a rare grounding of all U.S.

flights stranded hundreds of thousands of frustrated travellers with no end to the delays in sight. In New York’s busy LaGuardia airport, Janice Llewellyn was on the verge of tears: the chaos could mean she will miss her daughter’s wedding in Toronto.

The 61-year-old Llewellyn was desperate to find an alternative route, telling AFP: “I may lose my mind.” “My husband flew all the way from England to get to the wedding,” she said. “Oh gosh! I wish they had another flight, I wish I could get another flight, like, now.”