Major air traffic control system failure causes nationwide flight chaos in the US
On Friday, November 13, 2026, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a nationwide ground stop for all aircraft due to a critical communications failure affecting all 22 regional air traffic control centers. The suspension, which began at 15:36 Eastern Time and lasted over four hours, was the most significant disruption to the American aviation infrastructure since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. While aircraft already in the air were permitted to land, the measure stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers across the country.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security officials ruled out cyberattacks, attributing the collapse to a massive overload of outdated, legacy telecommunications equipment dating back to the 1980s. Following the lift of the order at 20:15, authorities reported that over 16,000 flights were canceled or delayed between Friday and Saturday. Recovery efforts are expected to take several days.
In response to the crisis, Secretary Duffy has urgently requested $50 billion in funding from Congress to modernize the aging air traffic control system. As of the latest updates, flight operations are slowly resuming, though systemic instabilities remain and passengers continue to face significant travel disruptions.