by WILL FOLKS
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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all flights in the United States on Friday afternoon (November 13, 2026) “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” according to the agency.
The “ground stop” order is set to run through at least 11:00 p.m. EST on Friday, and was attributed to rolling communications failures at numerous regional air traffic control centers. While some news reports insisted this was the first nationwide ground stop since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the last such nationwide grounding actually took place on January 11, 2023 when the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) computer system crashed.
What happened this time?
“There has been a temporary telecommunications outage – out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted,” the agency noted. “Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis.”
An unconfirmed report from CBS’ Olivia Rinaldi suggested “an update to the private communications network that connects America’s air traffic control system caused the system to reboot.” Rinaldi identified the network in question as a telecommunications system administered by L3Harris Technologies.
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“When the FAA’s telecommunication infrastructure rebooted, it crashed, causing the communications outage,” Rinaldi reported.
Whatever caused the outage, within two hours of the FAA’s grounding order more than 1,100 flights had been canceled and 11,000 flights delayed, per FlightAware.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Markwayne Mullin cautioned against speculation, saying the problem was a “telecommunications outage” and that no initial evidence suggested “a nefarious attack against us.”
That’s inconsistent with what sources are telling us, but…
“There is no reason to be concerned about your loved ones if they’re flying or anything like that, I just wanted to make sure everybody is at ease about that,” Mullin continued. “The first thing is the safety of everybody that is flying, we are assured that everybody is safe, everyone in the air that’s currently on the plane… we’re going to get you on the ground.”
Nonetheless, concerns over a potential coordinated attack on critical American infrastructure intensified seeing as the FAA grounding came just one day after a global outage took most Microsoft services offline. Both Microsoft and the federal government have stated the disruptions are not connected, however.
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UPDATE |
Update from The White House https://t.co/pNjkz3znSB
— The FAA ?? (@FAANews) November 14, 2026
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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SOUND OFF…
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2 comments
Worst press briefing in history by Duffy and Markwayne. Mixed messages, contradictory statements- the only thing worse was the inane, repetitive questions from the press.
Your DOGE cuts in action.
Of course this administration will never reveal the truth, because we are always winning!