Saturday 14 November 2026Thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled, and officials say the cause is still being investigated.
Featured image: Photo by Ad Meskens (CC BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative image of an aircraft at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
Key facts
- The US Federal Aviation Administration ordered a national ground stop on all departing flights on Friday, US time.
- The FAA described a temporary telecommunications outage, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it affected air route traffic control centres.
- FlightAware figures showed about 10,500 US flights delayed and more than 1,800 cancelled by mid-morning Saturday, Australian time.
- Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of a nefarious act or immediate threat.
- It is the second nationwide ground stop since the September 11 attacks.
- SBS News later reported that the order had been lifted.
What happened
The US Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop on all departing flights on Friday afternoon, US local time, after air traffic control problems that began in Chicago. The agency said the order was issued for reasons of safety and described a temporary telecommunications outage. Aircraft already in the air were allowed to land, and international flights were being handled case by case, the ABC reported.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a communication issue affected all air route traffic control centres. SBS News reported that he put the number of affected regional centres at 22, and said the exact nature of the problem was unclear. CNN, cited by the ABC, reported that air traffic control radars and radio frequencies were also affected.
Scale of the disruption
According to FlightAware, which is not an official source and described the figures as in flux, about 10,500 US flights had been delayed and more than 1800 cancelled by about 10am Saturday, Australian time. American Airlines said disruption was likely for the rest of the day, and United said new domestic flights would not depart while the ground stop remained in place. The ABC also reported that Australians were caught up in the disruption.
Questions over the cause
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of a nefarious act and no immediate threat, and described the problem as a telecommunications outage that would not be fixed within the hour. He did not rule out a cyber attack. Unnamed US media sources cited by the ABC said the FBI and law enforcement did not believe a cyber attack was involved.
Verizon said its network was fully functioning and that it knew of no air traffic control issue. The FAA holds a 15-year contract with the company that is potentially worth US$2.4 billion. A new artificial intelligence air traffic tool, known as SMART, was rolled out nationally on 10 November, and Mr Mullin said he was looking at the rollout. The company behind the tool, Air Space Intelligence, denied any link between it and the ground stop. Mr Mullin also said he saw no reason to connect the incident to the Microsoft outage that had been resolved that morning.
Political response and background
Senator Tammy Duckworth called for a thorough and complete investigation and said she would demand answers from the FAA. The previous nationwide ground stop since the September 11 attacks came in January 2023, when domestic departures were paused for under two hours after a computer malfunction at the FAA.
What happens next
SBS News later reported that the United States had lifted the order grounding flights, with the FAA saying departures would resume as en-route facilities recovered. The pages reviewed give no clock time for the lifting of the order and no final totals for delayed and cancelled flights. The FAA investigation into the cause is continuing, and ABC News also published a report on Australians caught up in the disruption.
