US flights grounded: FAA nationwide ground stop lifted after 4 hours
An overloaded air traffic control network halted every departure in the US on Friday. What failed, how many flights were hit, and what travellers should know.
Every departing flight in the United States was held on the ground for more than four hours on Friday, 13 November, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a rare nationwide ground stop. The FAA cited “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety”. The order was lifted at 8:15 pm Eastern time, which was 6:15 am on Saturday in Pakistan, but cancellations and delays carried on into the weekend.
What went wrong?
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the trouble started at 3:36 pm Eastern, when the FAA saw instability in radar and communications at its regional air traffic control centres and approach facilities across the country. The ground stop followed at 3:54 pm, NBC News reported.
Duffy blamed ageing equipment. “Our switches, our routers, actually got overloaded with data,” he said, adding that the data coming from them became inconsistent, so the FAA shut the system down as a precaution. He wrote on X that the FAA “did not lose all radar or telecom”, and said that “none” of the new equipment the agency has installed went down.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no sign of a cyberattack. “It appears that this was mechanically driven,” he said, while adding that investigators were still looking. AirSpace Intel, the company behind a new AI system being rolled out at FAA facilities, said its system did not cause the stop, ABC News reported.
How many flights were hit?
When the order came, about 3,100 planes were flying towards US airports, according to Flightradar24 figures quoted by ABC News. Planes already in the air kept flying, but nothing new took off. Duffy said the number of aircraft in the air fell from more than 3,500 to fewer than 400 by 8 pm.
By the end of Friday, FlightAware counted 4,467 cancellations and 10,079 delays on US flights, Fox News reported, noting that not all of them were caused by the outage. Washington’s Reagan National airport ran out of parking space for planes by 6 pm, and Chicago O’Hare was close, NBC News said.
Air Canada cancelled all its remaining Friday flights to and from the US. JetBlue cancelled the rest of its Friday schedule except flights to Europe from New York’s JFK and Boston, and United kept some international flights while cancelling most of its remaining Friday departures. Delta said customers could change flights at no extra cost.
Is this the first time?
No, but it is rare. ABC News said it was only the second nationwide ground stop since the 9/11 attacks. The last one, in January 2023, happened when the FAA’s NOTAM safety-notice system failed.
Duffy used the outage to ask Congress for emergency money. “I want $50 billion,” he said at the White House, calling for a “complete overhaul” of the system. Senator Tammy Duckworth said she would demand answers from the FAA.
Why it matters for Pakistanis
Most people flying between Pakistan and the US connect through hubs such as Dubai, Doha, Istanbul or London, so a halt on the American side knocks on to onward and return connections. If you or family members were booked on a US domestic leg or a flight out of a US airport on Friday or Saturday, check the airline’s app before heading to the airport: several carriers are offering free changes and automatic rebooking.
The bigger date to watch is Thanksgiving on 26 November, the busiest travel week in the US. Duffy said recovery would be slow but that he expects the system to be fully back before then.
