FAA resumes airplane departures after nationwide ground stop

Nov 13, 2026 6 min read People wait at a terminal at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Friday in Arlington, Va., after the FAA issued a nationwide ground stop. [AP Photo] WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration said airplane departures could resume Friday night after the agency lifted a nationwide ground stop caused by communications problems. The FAA had grounded all flights nationwide Friday afternoon, causing hundreds of flights to be diverted. Officials cited “extraordinary circumstances” caused by communications problems at regional air traffic control centers. The nationwide ground stop was the first since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned, and the second since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The nation’s top homeland security official attributed the problem to a telecommunications outage and said there was no indication the communications failure was related to a cyberattack.

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.