FAA lifts nationwide ground stop that disrupted thousands of flights, White House says no indication of “nefarious act”

Updated on: November 13, 2026 / 11:03 PM EST / CBS News

A rare nationwide ground stop on all departing U.S. flights that lasted several hours Friday has been lifted, and flights are resuming, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Officials said the issue stemmed from a "telecommunication outage."

"At 8:15 tonight, Eastern time, we've opened up the airspace," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said during a news briefing Friday night. "Now does that mean every flight is going to fly right now? It's going to be slow. So if you're watching, you're at an airport, check with your airline."

In a social media post following the briefing, the FAA said that "before clearing flights to resume, we thoroughly tested our systems to confirm they were stable and that operations remain reliable."

The FAA had issued the ground stop on all departing flights due to "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety." The ground stop lasted about five hours.

Duffy attributed the ground stop to outdated air traffic control technology and routers overloaded by data.

"What we have is an incredibly old air traffic control system," Duffy said during the news conference. " … Our routers actually got overloaded with data and…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/world/