FAA outage disrupts thousands of US flights
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop on November 13, but a communications failure left thousands of US flights delayed or cancelled and disrupted airport operations across the country.
Flights resume, but disruption continues
Although the FAA lifted the restrictions, airlines are struggling to restore normal operations as aircraft and crews remain out of position. Officials warned that it could take several days for air travel to return to normal.
Nearly 10,000 flights had been cancelled by 11:30 p.m. ET on Friday, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24. Tens of thousands of passengers were stranded at airports, facing long queues, overnight stays and uncertainty over their travel plans.
“At the moment, we have no information,” a passenger said while waiting in line to speak with airline staff.
Another traveller described the difficulties of finding alternative arrangements, while a third said they were prepared to spend the night at the airport: “I will sleep on the floor.”
Telecommunications failure behind nationwide disruption
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a nationwide suspension of departures, citing “extraordinary circumstances and reasons of safety” after communications problems affected air traffic control centres.
Flights already in the air were allowed to land safely. However, inconsistencies in radar data and communications prompted officials to halt departures as a precaution.
US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the incident was caused by a telecommunications outage affecting the FAA.
“There was no indication, and we had no reason to believe at this point that this was a threat to the United States. This was a telecommunications outage throughout the FAA,” Mullin said.
He added that officials had no evidence of a cyberattack, although the investigation was continuing.
Officials call for major infrastructure investment
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that similar disruptions could happen again unless the country's air traffic control infrastructure is modernized.
“What we have is an incredibly old air traffic control system. The failure occurred at the level of outdated hardware. Give us the money to fix it. We need new hardware, new software and new telecommunications infrastructure,” Duffy said.
He called on Congress to approve $50 billion for the modernization programme, arguing that the existing infrastructure was increasingly vulnerable to technical failures.
The communications outage affected radar systems, radio frequencies and several air traffic control centres across the country.
The incident occurred one day after a major Microsoft service disruption, but Mullin said the two events were unrelated.
The nationwide ground stop was the second such disruption since the September 11, 2001, attacks. The previous one occurred in January 2023, when a computer failure forced the FAA to suspend domestic departures for approximately 90 minutes.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
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