United States: FAA grounds all flights nationwide

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted all flight departures in the United States late Friday afternoon, November 13, "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety." Planes must stay on the ground until further notice.

An FAA spokesperson said a communications problem is affecting the centers that track planes in flight across the country. International flights bound for the United States will be handled case by case.

A telecommunications outage, not an attack

The FAA now attributes the stop to a "temporary telecommunications outage." All flights were halted "out of an abundance of caution," and every plane in the air is accounted for, the agency said.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there is no indication so far of an attack on the United States, though he ruled nothing out. He said no time frame has been set for a fix: "This isn't going to just be resolved and turned around within the hour." He said the outage is not connected to Thursday's Microsoft Outlook outage. President Donald Trump has been briefed.

American Airlines expects disruptions for the rest of the day. Planes already in the air can continue to their destinations.

Nearly 7,000 flights hit, national weather service also down

By about 4:30 p.m., the FlightAware site counted 6,575 delays and 331 cancellations of flights into, out of or within the United States.

The same afternoon, the National Weather Service (NWS) reported internet and communications problems nationwide. Its forecasts and radar images may be unavailable or out of date, and technicians are working to restore them. No link to the FAA outage has been officially established.

A very rare stop

A nationwide stop like this is exceptional. The last one was in January 2023, after a pilot alert system failed. Before that, it took the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Major airports, including Los Angeles and Philadelphia, are affected. Travelers, including members of the diaspora due to fly tonight, should check their flight status with their airline.

What about flights to Haiti?

Domestic flights in Haiti, between Port-au-Prince, Cap-Haïtien and Jérémie, are not affected by the U.S. measure and were operating normally on Friday afternoon, according to the tracking site FlightAware.

Scheduled flights between Haiti and the United States currently go through Cap-Haïtien. The American Airlines flight had already left for Miami in the early afternoon. A GlobalX flight that left Fort Lauderdale at 3:26 p.m. was en route to Cap-Haïtien. Departures from Cap-Haïtien to Miami scheduled between 5:10 and 5:40 p.m. could be delayed, as the FAA is handling international arrivals case by case.

This story is being updated.