The Federal Aviation Administration canceled its nationwide ground stop on Friday, November 13, at 8:16 p.m. Eastern time, ending a halt on departing flights that had lasted four hours and 22 minutes.
The stop began at 3:54 p.m. Eastern after communication problems affected Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the regional facilities that manage high-altitude flights between airports. An FAA advisory stated that all airports were ground stopped “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” with all departing traffic to remain on the ground until further notice and inbound international flights managed case by case.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described a communication issue impacting the centers, while the FAA later referred to a temporary telecommunications outage. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of a nefarious attack, characterizing the event as a telecommunications outage, though officials noted that investigations were continuing and that nothing had been ruled out.
During the stop, aircraft already airborne were permitted to continue to their destinations and land. At the time the order was issued, approximately 4,042 flights were en route to U.S. airports. Some selective releases occurred before the full cancellation, including certain West Coast departures to Hawaii and Asia, as well as limited international operations handled individually. Regional equipment and frequency issues had appeared earlier in the afternoon, beginning around Chicago before spreading.
Flight-tracking data from FlightAware showed the scale of the disruption. By early evening, nearly 5,000 flights within, into, or out of the United States had been canceled on Friday, with totals climbing past 5,000 as the stop continued, and roughly 10,000 flights delayed. About 600 flights were diverted. Major airports including Chicago O’Hare, Atlanta, and New York-area fields recorded large numbers of cancellations.
Airlines adjusted schedules accordingly, as JetBlue canceled remaining Friday flights except certain Europe-bound services from New York and Boston, United canceled most remaining domestic flights for the night with limited international exceptions, and Air Canada canceled remaining Friday flights between Canada and the United States. Several hundred cancellations were already logged for Saturday.
The FAA Command Center issued Advisory 005 at approximately 8:19 p.m. Eastern stating that the nationwide ground stop had been canceled. The order covered all destination airports and facilities. The cancellation does not restore normal operations. Departures are restarting through coordination with air traffic control, subject to release times, call-for-release procedures, miles-in-trail spacing, and delay programs at individual airports.
Some residual facility-level restrictions and spacing measures remained in effect as en-route centers recovered. Ground delay programs at several airports, including LaGuardia, Boston, Las Vegas, San Diego, and San Francisco, were canceled shortly after the national order ended.
As airlines resume flying, aircraft and crews remain displaced from their planned positions. This mismatch typically produces additional delays and cancellations while operators reposition planes and comply with crew duty-time limits.
Industry observers and airline statements indicated that disruptions would extend into Saturday and potentially the weekend as the system works through the backlog. Travelers were advised to check directly with carriers for updated schedules rather than relying on pre-stop itineraries.
Trump Administration officials are expected to provide additional updates on the cause of the outage and the resumption of regular airport activities in a White House press conference on Friday evening.
Continue reading...
[ H/T Trending Politics ]
