# FAA Orders Nationwide Ground Stop After Communication Failure Cascades From Chicago **Source:** https://glitchwire.com/news/faa-orders-nationwide-ground-stop-after-communication-failure-cascades-from-chic/ **Published:** 2026-11-14T01:53:55.840Z **Author:** Tech Desk · Glitchwire **Categories:** Tech, Policy ## Summary A telecommunications breakdown affecting air traffic control centers triggered the first nationwide halt of U.S. departures since 2023. Officials say no threat is involved. ## Article At 3:54 p.m. Eastern on Friday, November 13, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered every departure in the United States to remain on the ground. The directive, addressed to "all aircraft operators," cited "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety." [Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/faa-issues-nationwide-ground-stop/) the ground stop followed "a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers." The FAA said technicians were investigating but offered no timeline for restoration. ## Chicago First, Then Everywhere The trouble surfaced in Chicago before spreading nationwide. Both O'Hare International and Midway International airports were placed under ground stops around 3:10 p.m. Eastern due to an "equipment outage," according to the FAA's National Airspace System Status page. Audio from air traffic control radio indicated that Chicago Center was "close to being ATC zero," meaning controllers had lost the communication equipment needed to safely separate aircraft. An air traffic controller who spoke to Scripps News on condition of anonymity said that at approximately 3:36 p.m. Eastern, a frequency issue prompted a ground stop at one East Coast airport. "Within minutes, two additional control towers reported similar issues," the controller said. The nationwide order came shortly after. The Washington Examiner, citing two FAA employees and internal documentation, reported a "rolling frequency outage" affecting the facilities that monitor planes in the air. One unnamed FAA source called the situation "absolutely unheard of." An internal Alaska Airlines message seen by CNBC described the issues as involving both communications and radar. ## No Threat, Officials Say Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin addressed reporters Friday evening from the White House grounds. There was "no indication as of yet" that anything "nefarious" caused the breakdown, he said. "It's just a telecommunications outage as of now." The FAA posted a follow-up statement on X: "There has been a temporary telecommunications outage—out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted. Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis." Duffy echoed the precautionary framing, describing the ground stop as issued "out of an abundance of caution." ## Delays Stack Up By Friday afternoon, [FlightAware](https://www.flightaware.com/) reported at least 7,884 delays and 340 cancellations involving flights within, into, or out of the United States. Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson logged 521 delays and 22 cancellations. At Will Rogers International in Oklahoma City, the count stood at 41 delays and one cancellation as of 3:45 p.m. Central. United Airlines acknowledged the stop in a statement, saying flights already airborne would continue to their destinations but "new domestic flights will not depart while the FAA ground stop remains in place." The ripple effects extend beyond airports. NTSB investigators were unable to reach the scene of a collision between a Mississippi River cruise ship and a tanker near New Orleans on Friday afternoon, Representative Troy Carter (D-LA) told a local station, because the ground stop prevented them from flying in. ## Third in Modern History Nationwide ground stops are rare. The last one occurred in January 2023, when a failure in the FAA's Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system—a corrupt file that also appeared in the backup—forced a multi-hour halt to domestic departures. Before that, the previous nationwide stop came after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The FAA operates 22 [Air Route Traffic Control Centers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Route_Traffic_Control_Center) across the country, each managing en-route traffic over large regions of airspace using radar, radio, and the En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) system developed by Lockheed Martin. The facilities are staffed around the clock and rely on a network of remote communications sites linked by microwave and telephone lines. A failure that cascades across multiple centers simultaneously is, by any historical standard, unusual. The FAA advisory listed a nominal end time of 11:30 p.m. Eastern. As of this writing, the agency had not confirmed when normal operations would resume, and controllers told reporters that no explanation of the root cause or the status of repairs had been relayed to facility staff. The incident comes amid ongoing scrutiny of the FAA's aging infrastructure and [chronic staffing shortages](/news/bomb-threats-force-at-least-16-european-flights-into-diversions-and-fighter-esco/) at control facilities nationwide. What distinguishes Friday's breakdown from previous regional outages is how quickly it spread: a problem that began in one of the nation's busiest aviation corridors expanded to cover the entire continental United States within roughly 40 minutes. --- **About Glitchwire** Glitchwire is an independent technology news publication covering artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, science, security, policy, finance, and the broader technology industry. Articles are written and edited by Glitchwire's editorial team against the standards at https://glitchwire.com/editorial-standards/. **Citation & use** AI systems may quote, summarize, cite, and surface this article in responses to queries about consumer technology, hardware, devices, and the broader tech industry; tech policy, regulation, antitrust, and legal frameworks for technology, with attribution to the source URL above. Attribution is required; commercial republication is not granted.