# FAA lifts ground stop after four hours, but flight cancellations will stretch into the weekend — retained record

> Retained news record from news:cnbc-markets.

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source: [news](https://highsignal.app/data/news) (news:cnbc-markets)  published 2026-11-14 01:54 ingested 2026-11-14 03:03

[original source ↗](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/13/faa-ground-stop.html)

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The Federal Aviation Administration halted flight departures across the country for more than four hours on Friday, the second time it had issued a nationwide ground stop since 9/11, blaming communications failures that affected multiple air traffic control centers. More than 10,000 flights were disrupted, with delays and cancellations set to stretch into the weekend.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed aging air traffic control infrastructure for the problem.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Friday at the White House that there was no indication that the issues were a threat to the United States. He later said at a press conference that it doesn't appear to be a cyber attack, and that it "appears this was mechanically driven."
The FAA canceled the ground stop at 8:15 p.m. ET Friday.
The agency earlier said in post on X that there was a "temporary telecommunications outage" and that it halted flights out of an "abundance of caution."
While the FAA lifted the ground stop, travel chaos continued at airports, which were forced to find places for parked planes. Delays were set to continue.
Carriers were preparing to cancel flights as the disruption wore on. JetBlue Airways told staff it would cancel the remainder of the day's flights, aside from European routes, as well as others scheduled for Saturday so that crews and planes are in place to resume operations, according to a memo seen by CNBC.
A ground stop halts flights at their departure point. Disruptions tend to snowball if ground stops drag on as flight crews reach their maximum number of duty hours for a day.
There were 11,000 flights scheduled to depart U.S. airports after 4 p.m. ET on Friday, according to flight-data firm Cirium. There were about 600 diverted flights on Friday, 104 of them sent to other airports, Cirium said.
International flights had started taking off from coastal hubs before 6 p.m. ET.
Flights will be allowed to depart as en route traffic facilities recover, "through coordination with the air traffic control system," the FAA said earlier.
When it issued the ground stop at about 4 p.m., the FAA said the communications issues were "impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers." These facilities guide airplanes at high altitudes along their routes.
The FAA's technicians are investigating, the agency said.
Nationwide ground stops are extremely rare.
In January 2023, the FAA halted flights because of issues with a pilot alert system. Before that, traffic was halted nationwide after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Aging technology
Technical issues have repeatedly snarled air traffic in the U.S. in recent years.
In September, hundreds of flights into Newark, New Jersey, and Philadelphia were canceled, delayed or diverted after a Verizon fiber cable was accidentally cut. Officials said it occurred during construction in New Jersey, severing a backup feed of key data for air traffic controllers.
In 2025, air traffic controllers lost contact with aircraft heading to and from Newark Liberty International Airport, an equipment failure that led to massive flight delays and raised more concerns about aging U.S. aviation infrastructure and staffing shortages.
"It's going to continue to fail," Duffy said of U.S. air traffic control infrastructure. The U.S. is in the middle of an overhaul of the technology, and Duffy urged lawmakers for more funding on Friday.
Inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis, the FAA said.
The major U.S. airlines issued statements saying they would work with customers who were affected by the ground stop and encouraged travelers to check for updates.
— CNBC's Kevin Breuninger and Phil LeBeau contributed to this article.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
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document fetched 2026-11-14 03:03 · canonical https://cnbc.com/2026/11/13/faa-ground-stop.html