The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a nationwide halt to departures on Friday 13 November after communication and radar outages between air traffic control centres. The stoppage lasted more than four hours and was the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023.
Officials said new technology being added to the system overloaded ageing equipment. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of a malicious attack. FlightAware counted more than 4,100 cancellations and Cirium more than 3,200, while flights to and from the US were also delayed or cancelled at London Heathrow.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said traffic should be fully back to normal by the end of Sunday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that similar outages may recur as the system is modernised, a programme for which the administration is seeking another 30 billion dollars on top of the 12.5 billion already approved by Congress.