‘Telecommunication Outage’ Leads FAA To Issue Emergency Nationwide Ground Stop On All Flights

UPDATE — Friday, November 13, 2026, 7:51 p.m. EST: A “telecommunication outage” led the FAA to issue an emergency nationwide ground stop on all domestic flights in the U.S. on Friday. 

CBS News reports:

An update to the private communications network that connects America’s air traffic control system caused the system to reboot, leading to a crash and a communications outage, multiple sources told CBS News. The system is operated by L3Harris, which did not immediately respond to CBS News’ request for comment. 

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters in a briefing outside the White House that “there was no indication, as of yet, that this was a nefarious act against us. It was just a telecommunication outage, as of right now.”

“There is no indication, we had no reason to believe, that as of right now, that this was a threat to the United States,” Mullin said. “This was a telecommunication outage throughout FAA. Out of an abundance of caution, we have grounded all the flights. And all the flights are accounted for.”

He said flights will be able to land safely. 

“We are assured that everybody is safe. Everybody that’s going to be in the air, that’s currently on the plane, the loved ones, as I said, we’re going to get you on the ground and we’re doing it in a safe manner,” Mullin said.

Flight Radar posted on X that there were “3,100 airborne aircraft bound for US airports amid nationwide ground stop.” 

Markwayne Mullin indicated that inbound flights would be handled on a case-by-case basis. 

Meanwhile, many are questioning whether the ground stop has anything to do with the FAA rolling out an AI air traffic control tool, 

On Thursday, Gizmodo reported that the FAA was “expanding use of an $875 million AI tool, SMART, to ‘assist in managing air traffic across the entire national airspace system,’ a system the FAA says would not affect air safety.” 

As a report in the Falls Church News-Press notes, U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) “publicly questioned the safety of the FAA’s SMART air traffic management system in September and subsequently joined congressional efforts to halt its deployment pending additional testing and oversight.”

More from FCNP:

On Sept. 21, Beyer called for the suspension of SMART, warning that the federal government was moving too quickly to introduce artificial intelligence into aviation operations. “The FAA should not use my constituents as guinea pigs for an unproven AI air traffic control system,” Beyer said. He also warned that rushing the deployment of technology affecting aviation safety without sufficient evaluation could put travelers at risk.

Beyer, who co-chairs the bipartisan Congressional Artificial Intelligence Caucus, subsequently joined other lawmakers in an Oct. 9 letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford seeking a pause in the rollout. The lawmakers raised questions about independent safety testing, air traffic controller training, employee consultation and whether the technology had undergone sufficient evaluation before being introduced into critical aviation operations.

The timing of the rollout has become another point of interest. The FAA announced on Nov. 10 that SMART would expand nationwide to 22 regional air traffic control centers, approximately 50 days after its initial introduction in Washington-area airspace. Congressional correspondence had previously referenced a 90-day evaluation period, raising questions about whether the agency completed its planned assessments before proceeding with broader deployment.

As FCNP notes, although Friday’s ground stop comes just three days after the deployment of the new system, “SMART is designed to assist with traffic management and predictive scheduling rather than directly control aircraft or replace communications between pilots and air traffic controllers. No official findings have established that the system caused or contributed to the disruption.”

This story is still developing, and NewsOne will continue to provide updates as they become available. Our initial report continues below.

All departing flights in the United States have been halted as of Friday afternoon by order of the Federal Aviation Administration.

According to CNN, the FAA has grounded all flights until further notice, “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”

From CNN:

The reason for the ground stop was not immediately clear, but an FAA spokesperson said there is a communications problem impacting Air Route Traffic Control Centers, which handle flights going across the country.

The last time there was a nationwide ground stop was in January 2023, when a pilot notification system went down. Prior to that, the last nationwide ground stop was issued after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

NBC Chicago reports that an alert from the FAA said, “Inbound flights will be managed on a case-by-case basis.”

In a post on his X account, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote, “The @FAAnews issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.”

Axios notes, “The FAA has been rolling out a new AI tool designed to help manage airspace congestion, but it’s unclear if that system has any connection to Friday’s communication issues.”

This is a developing story, and NewsOne will update as details become available