Radar Down Nationwide - Full Ground Stop Occurred at American Airports (Video)

This is a 13 November 2026 video.

In aviation, a ground stop is the most restrictive traffic management tool used by the FAA. It requires aircraft meeting specific criteria to remain on the ground at their departure airports rather than taking off and entering congested or compromised airspace. While localized ground stops happen frequently due to severe weather or runway closures, a full nationwide ground stop halts all departures across the entire country simultaneously.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted its rare nationwide ground stop tonight after halting all departing U.S. flights for more than four hours due to a telecommunications outage. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed that the incident stemmed from a technical communications failure rather than a cyberattack or national security threat. While domestic flights are cleared to resume departures, severe ripple effects have left over 10,000 flights delayed and more than 4,200 canceled across the country.

An airline source indicated the disruption stemmed from a network router issue that cascaded nationwide across Air Route Traffic Control Centers. Authorities confirmed it was unrelated to the separate Microsoft outage earlier in the week. The ground stop lasted over four hours, marking the longest nationwide flight halt in U.S. history since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Inbound international flights were managed on a case-by-case basis while airborne domestic flights were permitted to land. Aviation analytics firm Cirium estimates that roughly 1.5 million passengers were stranded. Flight tracking data from FlightAware recorded over 10,000 delays and more than 4,200 cancellations by Friday evening. 

Major carriers including United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines warn that residual delays and cancellations will stretch into the weekend as crews and aircraft are repositioned. Confirm your flight status directly through your airline’s mobile app or website before heading to the airport, as schedules remain fluid. Because the outage was an air traffic control infrastructure failure rather than a carrier-caused delay, airlines are waiving change fees to rebook affected passengers onto later flights, though hotel and meal vouchers are generally not required for FAA-mandated stops. 

Commonly Exempt Aircraft and Operations

Under FAA Traffic Management policy, helicopters are automatically exempt from weather-related ground stops unless the advisory specifically includes them. A ground stop halts new departures on the tarmac, meaning commercial airliners and private planes already in the air are permitted to continue to their destinations and land. (Extreme national security events, such as September 11, 2001, are the rare exception where airborne planes are ordered to land immediately.) Medical evacuation (Medevac) flights, organ transport, search-and-rescue, and critical law enforcement missions generally receive priority clearance to depart even during traffic management holds. Defense operations, Air Force One, and designated heads-of-state flights operate under separate security protocols and are typically exempt unless safety of flight is directly compromised. Small general aviation planes flying under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) out of non-towered airfields do not require air traffic control clearances to take off. They can often still fly locally as long as they remain outside controlled airspace and avoid any restricted zones.

What Remains Grounded

Commercial Airliners on the Ground. Any commercial flight waiting at the gate or taxiing for takeoff must hold until the FAA Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) lifts the order. Private jets, corporate aircraft, and charter flights operating under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) or departing from towered airports are held on the ground alongside commercial carriers. Depending on the cause of a nationwide ground stop, the FAA occasionally excludes isolated regions. For instance, during the November 13, 2026 nationwide ground stop, flights operating within and between Alaska and Hawaii were exempted.

https://youtu.be/zJDPHYXUizA