Communications trouble triggers a nationwide halt to U.S. flight departures

A communications disruption has led the Federal Aviation Administration to halt departures across the United States. Its national ground-stop order tells departing aircraft to remain on the ground until further notice. International flights already heading into the country are to be handled individually; the instruction does not say that every airborne aircraft must immediately land.

FAA advisory 111 was signed at 3:54 p.m. EST on November 13, equivalent to 4:54 a.m. Beijing time on November 14. The notice identifies an equipment outage and invokes safety grounds for the restriction. Reuters independently reported that the stop covered all U.S. departures.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a communications problem affected all Air Route Traffic Control Centers, with technicians investigating, according to the Financial Times. These centers provide air traffic services principally during the en-route portion of a flight. They are part of the infrastructure that manages aircraft between airport areas, rather than simply another name for an airport's control tower.

The striking feature is the reach of the disruption. A communications problem prompted a nationwide departure restriction, extending the consequences far beyond an individual airport. The precise technical failure and the reason for its wide reach remain under investigation.

There is a clear historical precedent for a nationwide technology-related departure pause. In testimony about the January 11, 2023 NOTAM failure, the FAA recorded a stop beginning at about 7:15 a.m. EST and ending at 9:07 a.m. NOTAMs supply safety information about matters such as runways, navigation equipment and temporary restrictions. That earlier information-system failure does not establish the cause of today's communications trouble, but it rules out describing a national technical ground stop as unprecedented.

For passengers, the immediate concern is whether a departure or connection can still proceed as scheduled. Holding a boarding pass is not assurance that an aircraft can take off during the restriction. The next meaningful updates are the FAA's decision on the stop and the airline's plans for each flight. Ending a national restriction would not, by itself, establish a new departure time for an individual passenger.

As of November 13, 2026, 5:32 p.m. EST / November 14, 2026, 6:32 a.m. Beijing time, the FAA order did not provide a time for normal departures to resume. The technical cause and recovery arrangements remain subject to further FAA updates.