Ground Stop

3:36 PM ET
4 h 0 min
Airborne 3,500
Waiting departures (model) 0
Stop lifts at 7:36 PM
Backlog clears at 2:27 AM
Stopped 4 h 0 min · cleared 10 h 51 min after it began
The backlog clears only as fast as the spare capacity allows.
In this model no flight is cancelled; airlines cancel flights to catch up sooner.
Traffic is simulated from typical schedules; the timeline and the 3,500 airborne flights come from official statements.
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What happened

On Friday, November 13, 2026, the FAA stopped departures nationwide after an air traffic telecommunications outage.

Ground stops at Chicago O'Hare and Midway for an equipment outage came first.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed overloaded routers that “experienced instability” beginning at 3:36 p.m. Eastern, when over 3,500 flights were airborne over the U.S.

Officials said there was no indication of malicious activity at this early stage.

The stop was lifted in the evening, about four hours later.

Sources: The Air Current · ABC7 New York · NBC News · WGN

Thank you to the controllers and pilots working through it.