The Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop on all air traffic at U.S. airports Friday due to "extraordinary circumstances."
WATCH LIVE ON SCRIPPS NEWS: Nationwide ground stop in effect
The stop was placed "DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND FOR REASONS OF SAFETY." The stop requires that all air traffic set to depart U.S. airports remain grounded. Any flights already airborne would be allowed to proceed to their destinations.
The FAA said the stop would remain in place until further notice.
U.S. cabinet officials said Friday the incident was a communications problem, not an indicator of an attack or emergency.
"There's no reason for the public to be afraid or scared for your loved ones. This isn't a another 9/11. I just can't repeat that enough," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said. "People are making that assumption because that's the last time we had a nationwide ground stoppage. This is a telecommunication outage. This is much different."
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday afternoon the FAA "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."
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
An air traffic controller who spoke to Scripps News on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak publicly, said at approximately 3:36pm Eastern Time, they received notice of a frequency issue prompting a ground stop at one airport on the East Coast. Within minutes, two additional control towers reported similar issues. Shortly thereafter the nationwide stop was announced.
The individual said at this point, controllers have not yet been told what caused the specific issue or what fixes are underway. They said that some airports appear to be able to continue operations as normal, though others remain impacted by the technological problem.
"Everyone knows frequencies went down somewhere but no one seems to have actually lost theirs," the controller told Scripps News.
The source said communication coming from FAA leadership has been poor: "Everyone texting their friends to figure out what’s up and no one knows."
There has been a temporary telecommunications outage - out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted. Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) November 13, 2026
The last time the U.S. announced a nationwide ground stop was in January 2023, due to FAA computer malfunctions. The last stop before that was in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The FAA is in the middle of a systems overhaul, spending $12.5 billion to replace old physical and radio networks with new technology. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the FAA is likely to need Congressional approval for another $30 billion to complete the work.
This is a breaking news story. Stay with Scripps News for continued updates.
