US lifts nationwide flight shutdown after chaos

The United States lifted a nationwide flight suspension on Friday after a major communications failure disrupted air traffic control operations across the country, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and causing widespread airport chaos.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed the ground stop at 3:54pm Eastern Time. The suspension remained in place for more than four hours before flight operations gradually resumed.

According to flight-tracking service FlightRadar24, airlines cancelled more than 4,700 flights and delayed around 10,000 others on Friday. Another 700 cancellations had already been reported for Saturday as carriers struggled to restore their schedules. Aviation experts warned that the disruption could take several days to resolve fully.

The incident also affected international travel, with cancellations reported on flights departing from Canada and Europe for the United States.

The FAA said a telecommunications failure had disrupted communications at air traffic control facilities nationwide. The agency ordered the temporary suspension of departures as a precaution to maintain aviation safety.

Aircraft already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations and land safely. Incoming international flights were handled individually. However, several arriving aircraft faced delays on airport taxiways as gates became occupied.

US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin ruled out any immediate indication of a deliberate attack, saying the incident appeared to involve a telecommunications outage.

He said authorities were investigating the cause and had not found evidence of malicious activity. However, officials were examining several possibilities, including a potential cyberattack and issues involving a new artificial intelligence-powered air traffic control system.

Mullin also sought to reassure the public, saying there was no reason for passengers or their families to panic. He stressed that the incident was not another September 11-style attack.

The shutdown caused significant disruption at major airports, with passengers facing long queues, cancellations and uncertainty over their travel plans.

Airlines, including United and American, issued warnings about widespread operational problems. Some passengers were forced to wait aboard aircraft, while others were returned to departure gates as airport operations slowed.

The FAA confirmed that all flights had been accounted for and aircraft already airborne had been allowed to land safely.

The nationwide suspension was only the second such incident since the September 11, 2001 attacks. The previous nationwide ground stop occurred in January 2023, when a computer failure affecting the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions system halted domestic departures for approximately 90 minutes.

The communications failure has renewed concerns about the condition of America’s ageing air traffic control infrastructure, which has faced repeated technical problems and staffing shortages.

The incident came as the White House and Transportation Department were seeking an additional $30.1 billion from Congress to modernise the country’s aviation system.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said the proposed investment would help replace outdated equipment, strengthen telecommunications networks and upgrade control towers and airport infrastructure.

Congress had previously approved $12.5 billion over five years in July 2025 to improve air traffic control facilities and support the recruitment of additional controllers.

The FAA also announced on November 5 that it would replace outdated floppy-disk-based systems used to manage weather and other essential information at more than 400 air traffic control facilities by the end of 2028.

The planned upgrade will replace four systems dating back to the 1980s with a consolidated digital platform.

Previous communications failures have also disrupted US aviation operations. In September, thousands of flights in the northeastern United States faced delays and cancellations following a circuit failure at a Philadelphia air traffic facility and damage to a fibre-optic cable in New Jersey.

Authorities have yet to establish the precise cause of Friday’s nationwide outage, and investigations into the communications failure are continuing.