FAA Grounds All US Flights as 22 Air Traffic Centers Report Communication Failures
Thestandard · 3 SOURCESabout 9 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a nationwide ground stop of all departing flights on Friday, November 13, 2026, after 22 regional air traffic control centers experienced serious communication failures. Flights already in the air could land, but no aircraft on the ground could take off . US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the widespread nature of the outage, saying it affected the entire network coordinating flight paths between airports across the country . International flights were being managed on a case-by-case basis .
Key Points
- The FAA announced the ground stop on Friday afternoon local time, citing "extraordinary circumstance and reasons for safety"
- All 22 regional air traffic control centers that manage flight routes between airports reported communication failures simultaneously
- This is the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when an FAA computer system failure caused a brief pause; the previous nationwide stop before that was after the 9/11 attacks in 2001
- Congress approved US$12.5 billion last year to modernize aging FAA communications infrastructure, including replacing copper wires with fiber optic networks
- The FAA and White House are now requesting an additional US$30.1 billion from Congress to complete the modernization effort
Why It Matters
The grounding underscores the fragility of aging air traffic control infrastructure that has long relied on outdated technology, prompting renewed calls for congressional funding to complete the modernization program . For Hong Kong travelers, the disruption to US aviation could have significant ripple effects on trans-Pacific routes during the peak travel season.
The grounding underscores the fragility of aging air traffic control infrastructure that has long relied on outdated technology, prompting renewed calls for congressional funding to complete the modernization program . For Hong Kong travelers, the disruption to US aviation could have significant ripple effects on trans-Pacific routes during the peak travel season.