US Grounds All Flights Nationwide, Blames Communications Failure

In brief

• The FAA halted all departures nationwide on Friday, 13 November, due to communications problems at air traffic control centers.
• Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the outage was a telecommunications failure and not a terrorist attack, though the cause is still under investigation.
• About 7,000 flights were delayed or cancelled, according to FlightAware.

Nationwide ground stop

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a halt to all departures at airports across the country on Friday afternoon, citing extraordinary circumstances and safety reasons (В США призупинили вильоти всіх авіарейсів: названо причину – UNIAN) ("Це не 11 вересня": У США відповіли, чи є зупинка авіарейсів терористичною атакою – Українська правда) (Americký úrad z bezpečnostných dôvodov pozastavil všetky lety v USA – STVR). Aircraft preparing to depart were told to remain on the ground until further notice, while planes already in the air were allowed to land. International arrivals were to be handled case by case.

Cause under investigation

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said FAA technicians were investigating the problems, which affected communications at regional air traffic control centers (V USA vyhlásili celonárodní pozastavení letů. Podle ministra jsou důvodem problémy s komunikací – iROZHLAS). Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters at the White House that the failure was a telecommunications outage and that he saw no link to a recent Microsoft outage (США не обнаружили связи между сбоем Microsoft и приостановкой авиасообщения – NV) («Это не повторение 11 сентября»: США выясняют причины масштабного сбоя в авиасообщении – NV). He said officials had no evidence of a hostile attack, though he did not rule out a cyberattack or other causes.

The FBI did not believe the disruption resulted from hacking or criminal activity, according to Bloomberg, which cited a source who said a software update might have triggered the failure.

An AI-based air traffic tool, the SMART system developed by Air Space Intelligence, had begun wider rollout that week. The company said the ground stop was not caused by its product or its integration with the FAA (FAA SMART AI system vendor and Microsoft both say ground stop isn't their fault – Business Insider). Microsoft also said its products were not involved. Officials said the cause remained unknown.

Scale of disruption

Flight tracking service FlightAware reported nearly 7,000 flights delayed or cancelled as a result of the halt. Travelers waited in terminals, including at Washington Dulles International Airport. Mullin urged the public not to panic and said travelers were safe (Кібератака чи втручання ШІ? У США з’ясовують причини масштабного збою та зупинки авіасполучення – TSN). Officials said full restoration of systems would take time.

The last nationwide suspension of flights of this kind occurred in January 2023, when a database outage forced a similar stop.

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• FAA halts all US departures nationwide after communication outage at air traffic centers