Nationwide Ground Stop: All 22 Regional ATC Centers Hit With Communication Failure

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop Friday afternoon after a communication issue hit all 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.

Duffy posted on X at 4:16 p.m. EST that the FAA “issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.” He said FAA technicians were investigating and that the agency would provide updates as it had them. The FAA’s official X account retweeted that statement at 4:18 p.m. EST.

An FAA advisory said the stop was imposed “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” The Associated Press reported. The advisory directed departing aircraft to remain on the ground until further notice and said inbound international flights would be handled case by case, according to USA Today and the BBC. Flights already in the air were not ordered to land. USA Today, citing the advisory, said it listed an effective window from 3:54 p.m. EST to 11:30 p.m. EST, but that the listed end time did not guarantee flights would resume by then.

Live air traffic over North America at about 5:18 p.m. EST Friday, as shown on FlightAware. Planes already in the air were allowed to continue. (Screenshot: FlightAware)

Reuters reported that the FAA had halted traffic in Chicago because of air traffic control communications issues shortly before the nationwide order. Citing FlightAware, Reuters said nearly 7,000 U.S. flights had been delayed or canceled.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, speaking to reporters outside the White House about 5:03 p.m. EST, called the problem a telecommunications outage and said there was no indication it was an attack. “All the flights are accounted for,” he said, according to the BBC and USA Today. Mullin also said there would be a “priority list” as planes start coming into airports, USA Today reported.

As of 5:16 p.m. EST, the FAA’s live National Airspace System status page no longer listed a nationwide ground stop. Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Toledo Express Airport, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and John Glenn Columbus International Airport were not shown with separate ground-stop or delay programs. The National Herald reported that the FAA had begun lifting the nationwide restrictions and that flights were gradually resuming, with lingering delays at some airports, including those serving New York and Boston, due in part to weather. As of about 5:17 p.m. EST, however, Duffy and the FAA had not posted confirmation on X that the ground stop had been lifted, and USA Today’s live updates, last updated at 5:13 p.m. EST, still described the directive as in effect until further notice.

Northwest Ohio travelers flying through Detroit Metro or Toledo Express, or connecting in Cleveland or Columbus, should expect knock-on delays tonight even if departures resume. The last comparable nationwide pause in departures came in January 2023, when the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions system failed.

What travelers should do: Check your airline’s website or app for the status of your specific flight before going to the airport. The FAA has not published a flight-by-flight list, and individual itineraries may change as airlines rebuild their schedules.

Featured image: File photo of United Airlines aircraft parked at the terminal at night at Narita International Airport in Japan, Dec. 19, 2014. Photo by Nanashinodensyaku, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped, darkened and resized. This is not an image of Friday’s ground stop.

Sources:
Sean Duffy, post on X, 4:16 p.m. EST Nov. 13, 2026: https://x.com/SecDuffy/status/2121351591106072679
Federal Aviation Administration, @FAANews retweet, 4:18 p.m. EST Nov. 13, 2026: https://x.com/FAANews/status/2121352040303796435
FAA National Airspace System status, as of 5:16 p.m. EST Nov. 13, 2026: https://nasstatus.faa.gov/api/airport-status-information
The Associated Press, “Flights halted at airports across US due to air traffic control communications problems, FAA says,” updated 4:58 p.m. EST Nov. 13, 2026: https://apnews.com/article/flights-halted-airports-faa-f81b0904331dafad6133f291e5f531a8
AP live updates, “FAA grounds all flights nationwide due to communications problems,” updated about 5:11 p.m. EST Nov. 13, 2026: https://apnews.com/live/ground-stop-aviation-flights-news-updates-11-13-2026
USA Today, “Ground stop live updates: FAA orders flights to remain grounded nationwide,” updated 5:13 p.m. EST Nov. 13, 2026: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/11/13/faa-orders-nationwide-groundstop-at-us-airports-citing-safety/92765499007/
BBC News live, “Flights grounded across US due to air traffic control ‘communication issue,’” including a 5:03 p.m. EST update: https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c6z9dwn12037t
GBH, Hannah Reale, “Flights at Logan, airports nationwide halted across the country due to communication issue,” Nov. 13, 2026: https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2026-11-13/flights-at-logan-airports-nationwide-halted-across-the-country-due-to-communication-issue
The National Herald, “FAA Orders Nationwide Grounding of Departing Aircraft Across US, Flights Gradually Resume Amid Lingering Delays,” Nov. 13, 2026: https://www.thenationalherald.com/faa-orders-nationwide-grounding-of-departing-aircraft-flights-gradually-resume/
Reuters, as published by MarketScreener, “US grounds flights nationwide after air traffic control communications outage,” 4:45 p.m. EST Nov. 13, 2026: https://ca.marketscreener.com/news/latest/US-grounds-flights-nationwide-after-air-traffic-control-communications-outage-13268866/