FAA Lifts US Flight Ground Stop: What Caused the Disruption and What’s Next?

• The US Federal Aviation Administration grounded all departing flights on Friday, November 13, citing a telecommunications outage at air route traffic control centres across the country
• More than 4,700 flights were cancelled and 10,000 delayed, with aviation analysts warning it could take days for airlines to fully restore their schedules
• US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called for $50bn in upgrades to the nation's ageing air traffic control infrastructure after the incident

The United States (US) Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a nationwide ground stop on Friday evening, November 13, after five hours, following a telecommunications outage that halted all departing flights and left more than 1.5 million passengers stranded across American airports.

The FAA issued the ground stop at 3:54pm Eastern Time, citing "extraordinary circumstances and reasons for safety." Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said airspace reopened at 8:15pm ET, though he cautioned that operations would resume gradually depending on the availability of pilots and flight attendants.

The incident was the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years and only the second full halt to all departures since the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to Al Jazeera.

US Flights: What Caused the Ground Stop?

Duffy said the outage resulted from switches and routers that became overloaded with data, triggering intermittent gaps in communications and radar. He clarified that there was no total loss of radar capabilities. Officials admitted that new technology being added to the air traffic control network had overwhelmed older components of the system.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed there was no cyberattack involved.

"Everybody's safe," Mullin said, adding that this was not "another 9/11."

Aviation analytics firm Cirium reported that after 4pm ET, about 11,000 flights carrying over 1.5 million passengers were still scheduled to depart. By 7:05pm ET, at least 827 flights had been diverted, with 670 returning to their departure airports and 157 redirected elsewhere. By midnight, more than 4,700 flights had been cancelled and 10,000 delayed, with another 700 already cancelled for Saturday, according to FlightRadar24.

US Flight Ground Stop: Ageing Infrastructure Under Scrutiny

Experts pointed to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published in September, which flagged ageing copper cables dating to the 1960s and warned that delays in modernising the system could lead to exactly this kind of disruption. The report also noted that the FAA was not properly scheduling upgrades, causing multiple system changes to happen simultaneously and overwhelming the network.

Tony Stanton, a former senior executive with Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority, said it was "incredibly surprising" that officials had not anticipated the failure given the September warning. "These are things that can be foreseen, can be anticipated, and we should have plans in place so that the system has a minor impact rather than the major impact we're seeing today," Stanton said.

Duffy acknowledged the problem, noting that the country relies on "old switches, old routers" and "1980s little copper lines." He called on Congress to approve $50bn in upgrades to overhaul the ageing infrastructure.

US: When Will Flights Return to Normal?

Aviation safety expert Todd Curtis warned that even after the technical issues were resolved, it would take more than a day to reschedule aircraft across interconnected airline networks.

Duffy said he expected operations to be fully restored before the Thanksgiving travel period, which begins in under two weeks and is one of the busiest periods for US air travel. Passengers have been advised to check directly with their airlines for updates on delays and cancellations.

US Aviation Official Pressed over January Grounding

Legit.ng reported that US aviation officials in February 2023 took steps to avert a repeat of January's emergency grounding, but a top regulator said that a meaningful system upgrade won't be ready before 2025.

Billy Nolen, acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration, attributed the nationwide January 11 grounding of commercial planes to a mistake by a contract employee, who deleted computer files needed for a key air safety system.

The agency took steps, including strengthening backup systems and ensuring the presence of a second staff person during database work, that should "prevent a recurrence of what happened on January 11," Nolen told the Senate Commerce Committee.