Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) officials lifted the ground stop after around four hours, with President Donald Trump’s administration saying there was no evidence the outage was the result of foul play.

“This is a legacy system problem,” said Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. “We have old, old switches, old routers.

“We use 1980s little copper lines. It’s an old system that went down, and went down everywhere. It got overloaded.”

Mr. Duffy on Thursday (November 12, 2026) had formally asked Congress for $30.1 billion in funds to upgrade and modernize the U.S. Air Traffic Control System.

As the ground stop was lifted he repeated his plea. “I’m going to say it a million times: the Congress has to give the resources to the president so he can finish this bill,” he said.

AFP

The United States on Friday (November 13, 2026) lifted an hours-long ground stop at the nation’s airports, with top officials explaining that the disruption was not due to a cyberattack or a sweeping Microsoft outage.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that U.S. airspace was now “opened up,” and blamed “old hardware” for the travel chaos. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters there was “no cyberattack” and “no connection between this and Microsoft.”

AFP

Soon after the ground stop, U.S. Homeland Security chief Markwayne Mullin on Friday (November 13, 2026) had said there was no indication the country was under threat after a ground stop was issued at airports nationwide.

But he told reporters at the White House after meeting President Donald Trump that authorities were still investigating -- and did not rule out a possible cyberattack.

“There was no indication, as of yet, that this was a nefarious attack against us, it’s just a telecommunication outage, as of right now,” Mr. Mullin said.

“This isn’t another 9/11. I just can’t repeat that enough.”

AFP

Confusion reigned at airports across the United States on Friday (November 13, 2026), as a rare grounding of all U.S. flights stranded hundreds of thousands of frustrated travellers with no end to the delays in sight.

In New York’s busy LaGuardia airport, Janice Llewellyn was on the verge of tears: the chaos could mean she will miss her daughter’s wedding in Toronto.

The 61-year-old Llewellyn was desperate to find an alternative route, telling AFP: “I may lose my mind.”

“My husband flew all the way from England to get to the wedding,” she said. “Oh gosh! I wish they had another flight, I wish I could get another flight, like, now.”

At the airport in Las Vegas, some fliers were told their journeys were delayed due to wind.

Government officials have said the grounding was due to a major communications outage and not due to any “nefarious attack.” But that didn’t help travelers understand what comes next.

The shambolic lack of information led many passengers to form long lines at rental car counters in a mad dash for travel alternatives.

AFP

All flights in the U.S. were grounded on Friday (November 13, 2026), sparking travel chaos across the vast country, after what government officials said was a major communications outage, insisting it was not the result of any “nefarious attack.”

The nationwide stop left tens of thousands of passengers in limbo, with some pulled off planes moments before departure by airline staff who appeared in the dark about unfolding events.

The incident marked only the second time such an alert was given in U.S. airspace since the 9/11 attacks.

All departing U.S. flights grounded due to communication outage

Nationwide FAA grounding halts all U.S. flights after a telecom outage sparks chaos, confusion, and travel disruption.