Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, while speaking with reporters on the White House lawn on Thursday evening, declined to rule out a cyberattack as a possible cause of the nationwide ground stop affecting U.S. air travel. Like Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, he characterized the incident as a telecommunications outage with no indication of a nefarious act as of this report.
Mullin told reporters there was “no reason to believe as of right now that this is a threat to the U.S.” He described the situation as “a telecommunication outage throughout FAA” and stated, “Out of an abundance of caution we have grounded all flights—and all the flights are accounted for.”
He added, “There was no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack. It is just a telecommunication outage as of right now. Everybody’s safe. There is no reason to be concerned about your loved ones if they’re flying or anything like that.”
When pressed on whether a cyberattack could be excluded, Mullin responded that officials were “not ruling out anything at this point.” He elaborated, “To say that we can rule out anything, that’s not what we do at this point. The first thing we want to do is make sure everybody is safe,” and separately noted that “you can’t rule out anything.”
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Q: You say it's not 9/11-style, but if it's a widespread telecommunications issue, it could be a cyber-attack? A version of terror?
SEC. MARKWAYNE MULLIN: "This ISN'T the same comparison to 9/11. That's a road I WON'T go down."
"Do we know what has caused it yet? No, we're… pic.twitter.com/JpiYfRNqH6
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 13, 2026
The secretary also sought to address public concerns by stating that the event was not comparable to prior national emergencies. “We were wanting to assure all the American people this isn’t a safety to the American people, or another 9/11. I think that’s what a lot of people are trying to make the comparison to, and that’s not the case,” Mullin told reporters.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued the nationwide ground stop shortly before 4 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, ordering all departing aircraft at U.S. airports to remain on the ground “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” An FAA advisory directed that “all departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice,” with inbound international flights to be managed on a case-by-case basis.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the action to “a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers,” and FAA technicians began investigating the outage, which involved frequency and communications problems affecting multiple centers that manage en-route.
Aircraft already airborne were permitted to continue, while departures halted. Reports indicated the disruption involved radio frequencies and some automation or radar-related systems at centers, with effects noted in locations including the Kansas City, Chicago, New York, and Boston areas as the issue spread.
The ground stop measure is exceedingly rare, as the most recent prior nationwide ground stop occurred in January 2023 after a contractor error disrupted the NOTAM pilot notification system, and the only earlier instance followed the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Flight tracking data showed thousands of delays and cancellations developing within hours, with estimates exceeding 7,000 affected flights at points during the afternoon. The FAA and Department of Transportation stated that updates would follow as the technical investigation proceeded.
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