The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ended a rare nationwide ground stop that halted all U.S. flight departures for more than four hours starting at 3:54 p.m. ET on November 13, 2026. The ground stop was lifted at 8:15 p.m. ET after significant instability in radar and air traffic control communications disrupted operations.
Flight Disruptions Affect Over 10,000 Flights Across U.S. and Canada
More than 10,000 flights nationwide were affected, with thousands canceled or delayed during the outage, impacting operations at major airports including Ottawa International, Toronto Pearson, and Montréal-Trudeau in Canada, as well as key U.S. hubs. At the time the ground stop was initiated, about 3,500 planes were airborne.
Officials reported at least 600 flights were diverted, with 104 redirected to alternate airports.
Aging Air Traffic Control Systems Caused Instability
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the disruption to overloaded and outdated analog telecommunications equipment in the FAA’s air traffic control system, which caused inconsistencies in radar data. “Our switches, our routers, actually got overloaded with data … and started to give us inconsistency in the data from those routers. And because of that, we shut the system down,” Duffy said. He called on Congress to provide billions in funding to modernize the aging infrastructure.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the government found no evidence the
incident was caused by a cyberattack. “It doesn’t appear that way,” Mullin stated, though investigations are ongoing. The FAA described the stop as an emergency measure taken out of caution for safety reasons.
Travelers Face Extensive Flight Cancellations and Forced Returns
The ground stop caused travel chaos with thousands of passengers stranded. Several flights departing or en route to Ottawa International Airport were canceled or forced to return mid-flight, including flights to Boston and Fort Lauderdale. JetBlue Airways canceled all remaining flights for the day except for select European routes and some November 14 flights to reposition crews and aircraft. Passengers reported confusion and long delays at affected
airports including Toronto Pearson and Montréal-Trudeau.
Officials Call for Overhaul of Air Traffic Infrastructure
At a White House briefing, Duffy described the current air traffic control system as “an incredibly old … analog telecom” network and warned similar outages will recur without major investments. “We didn’t think we would have this kind of outage,” he said. “The systems that were deployed kept everybody safe — everyone landed. But you will have more of these unless the American people and the Congress tell us to build.”
Congressional leaders urged thorough investigations and accountability. House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries called the outage an “unprecedented breakdown” and demanded answers on
how to keep air travel safe. Senator Tammy Duckworth emphasized the need for redundancies and plans a full inquiry. Senator Maria Cantwell indicated her committee would review technology issues affecting aviation communications.
