U.S. nationwide ground stop lifted after air traffic communications outage

The nationwide halt on aircraft departures in the United States was lifted at 8:15 p.m. Eastern on Friday, 13 November, according to The Air Current, which cited air traffic control and airline officials. The release followed a communications outage affecting radar and radio frequencies used by controllers and pilots.

The lifting time corresponds to 08:15 on 14 November in Thailand. It marks the end of the nationwide departure restriction, while diversions, aircraft out of position and crew duty limits could continue to disrupt individual flights.

An FAA command-centre advisory reviewed by issue.red ordered departing traffic at all airports to remain stopped until further notice and said inbound international flights would be managed case by case. The advisory recorded the event from 20:53 UTC on 13 November; it was an initial restriction, rather than the later notice lifting it.

The Air Current reported that communications problems first emerged at the Chicago en-route control centre before other facilities reported failures. Flights already airborne were allowed to continue to their destinations, and some aircraft were diverted as airport gates filled.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no current indication of a cyberattack or terror threat, according to the report. He did not rule out a cyberattack; the cause remained under investigation. The available evidence does not establish that the FAA’s recently expanded SMART system caused the outage.

Passengers should check their airline’s flight status before travelling to the airport. A national restriction being lifted does not confirm that any particular departure will operate on time.