The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a national 'ground stop' on Friday afternoon, prohibiting all take-offs from American airports due to a communication problem affecting air traffic control centres.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered, on Friday 13 November 2026 in the late afternoon (East Coast time), the grounding of all flights departing from American airports. This rare measure, described as 'extraordinary circumstances', applies nationwide and remains in effect until further notice.
According to Transport Secretary Sean Duffy, it is a 'communication problem impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centres'. FAA technicians are actively investigating. Major airports such as Chicago O’Hare, Midway, LaGuardia (New York), Los Angeles and Las Vegas have been explicitly placed under ground stop.
Thousands of flights have been delayed or cancelled. Crews have reported difficulties with radios and flight tracking systems. A message from a UPS crew mentioned 'cyber attk issues on ATC freqs', without official confirmation. Neither the FAA nor the Department of Transport has so far described the incident as a cyberattack.
This is only the second national grounding of this scale since 11 September 2001. Flights already airborne are being managed case by case and may be placed in holding patterns. Authorities are urging passengers to check their flight status with their airlines.
Sources : Financial Times, CBC, The Contrail