The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop Friday, halting departures at all U.S. airports due to “extraordinary circumstances” and “reasons of safety.”
“All departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice,” an air traffic control advisory posted Friday says. “Inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis.”
There are currently 3,100 airborne aircraft headed for U.S. airports, according to flight tracking site Flight Tracker.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the ground stop on X and said the FAA is “investigating the issue.”
The @FAAnews issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 13, 2026
A nationwide ground stop has not been issued since January 2023, after the FAA computer system malfunctioned. Before that, it was the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The outage comes a day after the FAA expanded a new AI tool called Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories (SMART) to “assist in managing air traffic across the entire national airspace system,” according to Ars Technica.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said, “There was no indication, as of yet, that this was a nefarious act against us. It was just a telecommunication outage, as of right now. … Everybody is accounted for, flights are accounted for, and there should be no fear to the public.”
When asked if the incident was AI-related, he said, “You just can’t rule out anything at this point. We’re going through that process, and we’re going to find out what happened.”
“There is no fear to the public. I want to make sure we say this again: there’s no reason for the public to be afraid or scared for your loved ones. I can’t repeat that enough,” Mullin added.
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