The air traffic control tower at Chicago O'Hare International Airport is pictured on the day passengers board their flights for the Thanksgiving holidays, in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Nov 26, 2025. (File photo: Reuters/Jim Vondruska)

All departing US flights grounded due to communications problem

The rare nationwide ground stop order was issued due to a communications problem affecting US air traffic control towers.

13 Nov 2026, 22:21 · CNA · Join

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NEW YORK: United States air regulators on Friday (Nov 13) issued a rare nationwide ground stop for all departing flights, citing a communications problem affecting air traffic control towers, in a move that caused immediate confusion for travellers.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) "issued a nationwide ground stop for all US airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers", the agency said.

"FAA technicians are investigating the issue."

The FAA has announced similar orders in recent years on individual airlines due to communications issues, usually lasting a couple of hours or less. Systemwide groundings nationwide are far less common.

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In January 2023, the FAA called a nationwide ground stop due to problems with the Notice to Air Missions system (NOTAM), which provides information to pilots about hazards, changes to airport facilities and information that can affect flights.

That outage lasted just under two hours and was thought at the time to be the first nationwide grounding since 9/11.

Friday's FAA order came a day after US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy formally asked Congress for US$30.1 billion in funds to upgrade and modernise the US Air Traffic Control System.

"This investment is critical to complete the modernisation of our national airspace -- delivering a resilient telecommunications backbone for air traffic controllers, modern hardware and software, state-of-the-art control towers, and world-class airport infrastructure,” Duffy and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought wrote in a letter to lawmakers.

At Las Vegas airport, the Southwest Airlines check-in desk told passengers there would be no flights taking off for 24 hours.

NO INDICATION OF THREAT

US Homeland Security chief Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication the country was under threat.

But Mullin 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 telecommunications outage, as of right now," Mullin said.

"This isn't another 9/11. I just can't repeat that enough."

But asked if a cyberattack could eventually be found to be responsible, Mullin said officials were "not ruling out anything at this point".

The homeland security chief said, however, that he did not believe the air traffic stop was linked to a huge global Microsoft outage that affected public services around the world.

"I don't see any reason to connect those two at all. Those are separate issues," Mullin said.

Mullin added that "every flight has been accounted for" and said incoming international flights would be handled on a "case-by-case basis."

But he said the situation could "take some time" to be fixed. "This isn't going to just be resolved and turned around within the hour," he added.

CONFUSION AND DELAYS

At Las Vegas airport, the Southwest Airlines check-in desk told passengers there could be no flights taking off for the night.

Check-in staff at one desk said they had been told the ground stop would last at least eight hours, with one member of airline personnel saying it would be 24 hours.

Travellers were left in the dark, with some saying they had been told their flight was delayed because of wind, while others were left to gather what information they could.

"So supposedly, nobody's flying, but they haven't told the public yet," said an exasperated Joseph Anderson, 72, who was trying to fly from Las Vegas to Oakland, California.

"We're trying to debate whether or not we need to reschedule or drive or what, but if the whole country is stopped, that means the highways are going to be jammed too.

"We can't get our luggage, so we're kind of stuck," added the retired Air Force veteran.

"I would hope the communication can be better from the FAA in the next hour or so."