US Flights Grounded For Four Hours After Air Traffic System Failure
A telecommunications failure stopped every departure in the United States for more than four hours. Officials say there is no sign of a cyberattack.
WASHINGTON, Nov 14 – Thousands of air travelers across the United States were still trying to get home after a nationwide ground stop froze all departures for more than four hours on Friday.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued the order shortly before 4 p.m. Eastern Time and lifted it at 8:15 p.m. By then, the disruption had already taken hold.
More than 6,600 flights were canceled, and about 8,600 were delayed, according to the tracking site FlightRadar24. FlightAware’s count late on Friday was close to 800 cancellations. Both numbers are still climbing.
The agency said the cause was “a temporary telecommunications outage.” It gave few other details. It did say every flight had been accounted for, and that international flights would be dealt with one at a time.
So what broke is still unclear. The first outages hit radio, radar and communications in Chicago, according to The Air Current, an aviation news site.
At a White House briefing on Friday night, two of President Donald Trump’s cabinet members offered a possible reason. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin suggested the old system had been swamped with data after new equipment was added.
The timing drew notice. Just three days earlier, the agency had turned on a new air traffic tool called Smart at all 22 of its air route control centers. The tool uses artificial intelligence.
Duffy denied that Smart caused the failure.
Mullin said patching the network piece by piece was not effective, adding that the country needed someone to build a completely new system. He also played down talk of a hack, saying, “We’ve seen zero evidence that this was a cyber-attack.” He said no one had claimed responsibility for the incident and that officials had found no trace of anyone breaking in, adding that the failure appeared to be mechanical.
Trump made no public comment while the crisis unfolded. Duffy said more than 3,500 aircraft were in the air when the order was issued, and that most were permitted to land, although the ground stop caused significant disruption.
At Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, nearly every flight listed on the departure boards was marked “Delayed” or “Cancelled.” Some passengers sat and waited.
David Johnson was among them. His flight to San Francisco was delayed twice. He said he could have made alternative arrangements had he been told how long the wait would be.
Grissel Francis was already airborne, flying from Dallas to New York with her husband. The crew informed passengers that all flights had been grounded and that theirs would be among the last to land. After touching down at LaGuardia Airport, the aircraft waited about an hour for a gate.
Francis said the experience reminded her of the September 11, 2001, attacks, calling it frightening.
At John F. Kennedy International Airport, Steve Honberger was aboard a plane preparing to depart for Portland, Oregon, when it remained at the gate for an hour and 40 minutes.
Others took the disruption in stride.
Debra Bliesner, 71, spent 30 years in the Air Force. While waiting in San Jose, California, she said she would rather face an inconvenience than compromise safety.
Barbara Steinberg’s flight from Newark to Toronto was cancelled, meaning she will likely miss her high school reunion. The accountant said much of the country’s infrastructure needs repair.
The lifting of the stop did not immediately end the disruption. Aircraft and crews remained out of position, and airlines were unable to resume normal operations at once. Duffy said tens of thousands of passengers could be stranded at airports overnight.
Edward Karagbo was among them. His Ethiopian Airlines flight from Newark to Lome, Togo, was delayed by nine hours. He said he would sleep at the airport.
A nationwide ground stop is rare. The last one occurred in January 2023, when the agency paused domestic departures for less than two hours.
This one lasted longer. Reuters described it as the largest halt to air travel in the United States since 2001.
It followed other failures this year. In September, a failed circuit in Philadelphia and a severed backup cable in New Jersey ultimately affected about 9,500 U.S. flights.
The agency employs more than 14,000 air traffic controllers, who handle more than 44,000 flights a day.
