FAA orders nationwide ground stop of departing US flights after communications failure

Note

The FAA's Air Traffic Control System Command Center issued Advisory 111 at 3:54 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov 13, ordering a nationwide ground stop. The advisory said that, "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety," all airports were ground stopped and "all departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice." It said inbound international flights would be "managed on a case by case basis." The advisory listed an event window through 11:00 p.m. ET and an effective time through 11:30 p.m. ET. NBC News independently confirmed the 3:54 p.m. ET issue time, the safety wording, the until-further-notice instruction, and the inbound-international guidance.

An official FAA newsroom statement dated Nov 13, marked preliminary and subject to change, said the agency "issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following communication issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers." It said FAA technicians were investigating and that updates would follow. A later command-center advisory, No. 120, issued at 5:46 p.m. ET, listed the reason as a "communications failure" and said the ground stop remained in effect, with flights to be allowed to depart as en route facilities recover, through coordination with the command center. Advisory 117, issued earlier that afternoon, referred to a "nationwide comms failure" when extending flight-plan drop times at all en route centers.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was "no indication as of yet" that anything "nefarious" caused the ground stop, and he attributed it to a telecommunications outage "as of now," NBC News reported. Mullin said President Donald Trump had been briefed and that officials "are not ruling out anything at this point" as to what caused the communications issue. He said people already on flights had no reason for concern: "We are assured that everybody is safe." Officials from multiple agencies told NBC News they had not seen the type of activity normally associated with a cyberattack, while cautioning that the assessment could change. This note does not describe the outage as a cyberattack. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, in a statement on X reported by St. George News, said the FAA issued the nationwide ground stop "following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers," and that "FAA technicians are investigating the issue."

The stop was still listed later in the evening. In an operations plan issued at 7:37 p.m. ET, the command center said the national ground stop "remains in effect for a large portion of the country," though "some of the coastal facilities have been able to release some international departures." That plan listed a "nationwide ground stop w/selective releases" until 11:00 p.m. ET, with a next planning webinar at 9:15 p.m. ET. An earlier operations plan, issued at 5:46 p.m. ET, had said traffic would be released from the nationwide ground stop "as conditions allow," using a "tiered approach."

United Airlines said flights already airborne would continue and that new domestic flights would not depart while the ground stop remained in place, NBC News reported. American Airlines, in a statement on X reported by St. George News, said it expected disruption to its schedule for the rest of Friday, depending on how long the restrictions remained.

Nationwide ground stops are rare. NBC News noted that the FAA ordered one after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and again in January 2023 after a failure in the Notice to Air Missions system. St. George News, citing the Associated Press, likewise described the January 2023 grounding as the last nationwide ground stop before Friday's order.