From “failure” to chaos: What is known about the stoppage of U.S. flights?

Uon Friday, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suspended all flights in the country, the United States stopped communication problems at air traffic control centres. Here's all we know so far. 

The first information, advanced by the FAA in a statement, realized that the decision was made due to the “extraordinary circumstances for safety reasons”. 

“ All exit traffic [from airports] should remain on the ground until further notice,” he added, and the resumption of flights ended by the end of the day (1am this Saturday morning in mainland Portugal).

Subsequently, the FAA explained that “there has been a temporary failure in telecommunications and, as a precaution, all flights have been suspended”, ensuring that “all flights are accounted for and international flights will be treated on a case-by-case basis”.

Also, Secretary of Transport, Sean Duffy, said that the FAA “described the suspension of all departures at the airports of the country following a communication problem that affected all air traffic control centres en route”.

The @FAAnews issue 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

USA “do not discard scenarios”, but “it’s not 9/11”

At a press conference at the White House, the U.S. National Security Secretary stated that “no scenario is discarded” in the investigation of communication failure which led to the cancellation of all flights in the country. Still, he ensured that the incident “does not pose a threat to the population”.

“ At the moment, we are not discarding any scenario”, he said, when asked about the possibility of being a cyberattack.

“ We want to assure all US citizens that this is not a threat to the American people or another September 11”, he stressed. “There is no indication, no reason to believe, that so far this has posed a threat to the United States.”.

At the time, the person responsible also stressed that the normalisation of the situation would “take some time”. “This will take some time. But, once again, everyone is fine”, he stressed.

Experts point to absolute technology as the cause of the problem

According to AP, which cites air safety experts, the problem appears to be similar to an interruption in regional air traffic control communications that took place in September, which affected hundreds of flights throughout the northeast region — with the difference that this time the impact was at national level.

The episode may be related to the obsolete technology used by air traffic controllers, the same experts advanced.

The US air control system is affected by obsolete infrastructure, which, according to the Secretary of Transport himself, make its technological modernization urgent.

The U.S. government has been working to modernise the obsolete technology on which air traffic controllers depend, since Congress last year approved $12.5 billion for the project.

The ongoing modernisation includes the replacement of miles of old copper wires with fiber optic lines, and the gradual exchange of old-fashioned radio systems at airports across the country.

However, Duffy stated that it will take another $30 billion to complete the project, and the White House began to articulate with Congress the approval of this amount.

First national suspension since January 2023

This is the first suspension of flights at national level in the United States since January 2023, when a critical IT system of the FAA failed. Before that, the latest occurrence of the gender had been following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Two communication failures affected flights in Newark in 2025, one of the three major airports serving New York.

Six thousand flights have been cancelled

Airspace in the United States ended up reopening several hours later. In total, 6,000 flights had to be cancelled all over the world.

The suspension decreed on Friday night, two weeks from Thanksgiving holiday, a period marked by a great flow of travel, plunged the country's airports into chaos and uncertainty for hours.

Airlines now have to transport hundreds of thousands of affected passengers. More than 800 aircraft were diverted to airports that were not in the original flight plan.