FAA Halts All Departures Nationwide After Communications Outage

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop on Friday afternoon, halting all departing flights at every airport in the United States, including Philadelphia International Airport, after a telecommunications outage struck air traffic control.

A ground stop keeps departing aircraft on the ground. The FAA issued the order at about 3:54 p.m. ET, citing “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” Departing aircraft must remain on the ground until further notice. Flights already in the air continue to their destinations without an order to land. Inbound international flights are handled case by case. The FAA advisory lists an effective period from 3:54 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. ET, but that does not guarantee flights will resume by then.

The cause is a communications problem. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a communication issue affected all Air Route Traffic Control Centers, which manage high-altitude en-route traffic. FAA technicians are investigating. CBS reported around 6:45 p.m. that an update pushed out Friday to the private communications network linking the country’s air traffic control system crashed the entire system. The system is reportedly operated by the tech company L3Harris.

The @FAAnews issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 13, 2026

The scale is large. As of 6:40 p.m., more than 10,000 flights were delayed and more than 3,000 were canceled across the country, according to FlightAware. NBC reported about 11,000 flights were affected.

Officials ruled out a cyberattack. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called it a “telecommunication outage throughout FAA” and said there was “no prior indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack against us.” He said, “It’s just a telecommunication outage as of right now,” and added, “This is not another 9/11.” The FBI does not believe it was a cyber attack or criminality, a person familiar with the matter said. Microsoft said there was no indication the ground stop was related to its own outage.

At Philadelphia International Airport, several planes remained at the gates. European departures began resuming around 6 p.m., NBC10 reported, citing an FAA official. Departure delays at Philadelphia were running 55 minutes and increasing, according to FlightAware. Amtrak said around 5:30 p.m. that it was experiencing higher than normal call volume as stranded passengers sought other ways to travel.

This is the third nationwide ground stop in American aviation history, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the January 2023 failure of the pilot alert system. The National Weather Service also experienced nationwide internet and communications issues on Friday. It said just before 6:15 p.m. that its radar and website were fully operational.

It is not yet clear when the ground stop will lift. There were preliminary indications that communications were improving in some places, but the FAA has not said when normal operations will return. Travelers should check their flight status directly with their airlines.