Μake us preferred on Google The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a nationwide ground stop on all departing flights across the United States on Friday following serious communications problems affecting the country’s air traffic control network.
The decision disrupted operations at major airports, including Atlanta, Ronald Reagan Washington National, Miami, Baltimore/Washington, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental, Los Angeles International (LAX), Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International, New York’s JFK and Philadelphia International.
Airports confirmed that departures had been suspended and advised passengers to check directly with their airlines for updates on individual flights.
A view of the Flight Radar website at just prior to 5 p.m. EST on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.
The disruption also affected passengers aboard aircraft that had already landed but were unable to reach their gates. A passenger arriving at LAX from Newark told CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner, that the aircraft could not taxi to its gate because another plane scheduled to depart was being prevented from taking off.
Another passenger who had landed in Austin said travelers had been instructed to “sit tight” because they were not being allowed to disembark.
Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 reported that approximately 3,100 aircraft were already airborne and heading towards US airports when the ground stop was announced. It also said no additional aircraft were taking off at the time.
The FAA said inbound international flights would be handled on a case-by-case basis, while aircraft already airborne could continue towards their destinations.
The agency had not initially provided a timetable for lifting the restrictions or identified the precise cause of the communications failure.
The incident renewed concerns over the reliability of US air traffic control infrastructure and the need for modernization. It followed a nationwide departure suspension in January 2023, when an outage affecting the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system disrupted the distribution of essential safety information to pilots.
The latest shutdown was a suspension of departures rather than a complete closure of US airspace.
