U.S. Ground Stop Caused by Communications Failure Disrupts Thousands of Flights

A nationwide ground stop in the United States occurred on Friday, November 13, 2026, following a communications failure during infrastructure upgrades. The Federal Aviation Administration issued the ground stop at 15:54 Eastern Time. This disruption, which was the first of its kind since January 11, 2023, lasted until 20:15 Eastern Time on the same day. The incident caused significant difficulties with aircraft communications and interruptions in the reception of radar data.

The Cause of the System Failure

The failure originated during maintenance work intended to replace old copper lines with fiber optics at a remote Federal Aviation Administration facility. The contractor L3Harris was performing the maintenance work when the system failure occurred. Officials identified that the failure involved a router overload that caused over 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds. Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford stated that the worst of the disruption has passed. He also noted that there was no evidence of a cyberattack or a connection to artificial intelligence. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin stated that no one was in danger during the grounding.

The Federal Aviation Administration identified the faulty equipment within 45 minutes of the initial disruption. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said he is investigating if the cause was human incompetence or a faulty router. According to reports from nacion.com, Secretary Sean Duffy has requested $50,000 million for infrastructure modernization. Currently, 70% of the lines in the country have already been replaced with fiber optics.

Impact on Flight Operations

The disruption caused widespread delays and cancellations for travelers. On Friday, approximately 12,000 flights were canceled, including 9,000 commercial flights and 3,000 private flights. The total number of flight cancellations between Friday and Saturday exceeded 16,000. On Saturday, out of 41,000 scheduled operations, 4,600 flights were canceled and over 2,300 were delayed.

The scale of the disruption was significant for the aviation industry. This event was the second nationwide ground stop since the September 11 attacks. While the technical failure caused major logistical issues, officials emphasized that the safety of the airspace was maintained throughout the event.

Glossary

• ground stop — A ground stop is an action issued by the FAA. It can also be referred to as a ground delay.
• fiber optics — Fiber optics is a technology used for guidance in systems like the FOG-MPM. It allows an operator to guide a missile to a target without a line of sight.