FAA Lifts Ground Stop After Four Hours, But Duffy Can't Rule Out a Repeat

The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop Friday night after halting all U.S. flight departures for more than four hours. The agency cited "extraordinary circumstances" caused by communications problems at multiple regional air traffic control centers.

The order, issued Friday afternoon, November 13, 2026, was the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years and the second since 9/11. More than 10,000 flights were disrupted, and cancellations were set to stretch into the weekend.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed old technology that became overloaded. Telecommunications routers, he said at a press conference late Friday, were overloaded with data. Duffy called the situation an "emergency" and asked Congress for billions more in funding to modernize critical equipment.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters there was no indication the incident stemmed from a cyberattack, but officials were still investigating. He said no one was in danger as more than 3,000 flights were safely landed. Duffy could not guarantee it wouldn't happen again.

Even after the order was lifted, airlines could not return to normal operations immediately because planes and crews were out of position. The cascading delays and cancellations were expected to continue into the weekend.

The ground stop exposed how dependent the U.S. travel system is on aging infrastructure. It also turned a technical failure into a political fight over funding and accountability. The administration is framing the outage as an emergency requiring billions in new spending, while declining to rule out a repeat.