U.S. Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop on Friday, ending a four-hour freeze on departures caused by a communications outage that delayed more than 10,000 flights and canceled at least 4,700 across United States.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday at night lifted a nationwide suspension of takeoffs that paralyzed departures at airports across United States for four hours because of a communications outage, although officials warned that flight operations will take time to return to normal.
The Trump’s administration attributed the incident, which caused thousands of flight delays, to a failure in the communications system and ruled out a terrorist attack against the country.
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U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the reopening of the airspace during a news conference at the White House, but cautioned that air traffic will need time to recover. “We are going to try to move as many of those planes as we can tonight, if we have enough crews to operate those flights. If not, we will start tomorrow morning,” he said.
For her part, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin affirmed that no attack had taken place against United States and that the incident was unrelated to Thursday’s Microsoft outage. “The public was never in danger during this process. There were never any lives at risk. All your loved ones are safe. We are working to resolve the problem, and we hope to have operations up and running,” he said.
🚨BREAKING: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the FAA reopened U.S. airspace at 8:15 p.m. ET — but warns “it’s going to be slow.” Travelers at airports should check with their airline. pic.twitter.com/DY29r17iHP
— Off The Press (@OffThePress1) November 14, 2026
Duffy explained that the FAA’s analog telecommunications systems suffered a data overload that produced inconsistencies in the information transmitted by its routers. As a result, authorities decided to shut down the system as a preventive measure. Following this, the Secretary asked Congress to authorize “emergency funds” to modernize the country’s air traffic control infrastructure.
The suspension was the third nationwide halt of takeoffs in United States so far this century. The previous ones were ordered after the September 11, 2001 attacks and after the failure of the pilot alert system in January 2023.
At 20:54 UTC, the FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for all flights departing for US airports due to an equipment outage. At the time, 4,042 flights destined for US airports were already airborne. Watch the next two hours of US air traffic. pic.twitter.com/qbtzX7cMtc
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) November 13, 2026
Thousands of Flights Affected
According to FlightRadar data, the interruption caused more than 10,000 delays and at least 4,700 flight cancellations across the country.The stoppage lasted four hours, but its knock-on effects are expected to linger, and the accumulation of disruptions could prolong problems in air operations through the weekend.
Despite the suspension, some international flights bound for Europe and Asia were able to take off because they were not scheduled to fly over continental U.S. territory. The outage also affected cargo and mail transport operations of companies such as FedEx and UPS.
The administration’s explanation points to a technical failure rather than a security threat, but the episode has put the spotlight on the state of the country’s air traffic control infrastructure, the issue behind Duffy’s call for emergency funding. For travelers, the immediate concern is how quickly airlines can reposition aircraft and crews after four hours without departures.
Duffy said the priority now is to move as many grounded aircraft as possible, depending on crew availability, with any remaining flights pushed to Saturday morning.
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