FAA grounds flights across US after air traffic control communications outage
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US aviation regulators have issued an extremely rare ground stop of all flights across the country after a major communications outage which the Department of Homeland Security said did not appear to be the result of any “nefarious attack”.
The halt triggered immediate chaos and confusion for travellers, with departure
boards at many airports showing flights were operating normally, even as customers were unable to board planes.
The Federal Aviation Administration “issued a nationwide ground stop for all US airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centres”, the agency said. “FAA technicians are investigating the issue.”
In a subsequent message on X, the agency described the problem as “a temporary telecommunications outage” and said it was acting “out of an abundance of caution”.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no sign of a threat to the United States and “this isn’t another 9/11″.
“There was no indication, as of yet, that this was a nefarious attack against us, it’s just a telecommunication outage, as of right now,” Mullins said, adding officials were “not ruling out anything at this point”.
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.
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 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 modernization 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.
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.
🔴 #BREAKING | The FAA has issued a nationwide ground stop. All departing traffic is grounded until further notice. pic.twitter.com/UIcOqI0tQa
— Airways Magazine (@airwaysmagazine) November 13, 2026
“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 kind of stuck,” added the retired Air Force veteran.
“I would hope the communication can be better from the from the FAA in the next hour or so.”
Air NZ ‘closely monitoring’ situation
Air New Zealand’s chief operations officer Kate Boyer said the airline was “closely monitoring” the situation in the US.
Boyer said they had no flights scheduled to depart New Zealand for the US until this evening. There was currently no impact on these services.
“For Air New Zealand flights departing the USA to New Zealand, at this stage we’ve proactively delayed these services by two hours as a precaution while we assess the situation,” she said.
Boyer said they would contact customers directly if their flights are affected.
Travellers are encouraged to keep an eye on the travel alert section of the Air New Zealand website and their Air NZ app.
– AFP, with additional reporting by NZ Herald
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