“We’ll get home one day,” travellers lamented on Friday as the United States grounded all flights across the continental US for more than four hours due to air traffic control system issues, triggering widespread travel chaos that is expected to last for days, BBC News reported.
No flights were permitted to take off from the continental US starting at 15:54 EST. The ground stop marked the longest such nationwide halt to aviation since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Officials pointed to outdated equipment as the root cause of the breakdown while confirming there was no indication of a cyber-attack.
The ground stop officially lifted at 20:15 EST, enabling aircraft to depart. However, airlines faced a massive backlog, with more than 15,000 flights delayed or cancelled and an estimated 1.5 million passengers affected, according to data from flight tracking services reported by BBC News. Passengers frequently found themselves trapped inside planes on tarmacs, unable to take off or return to the terminal gates.
International air travel also suffered immediate repercussions. Several international flights slated for US destinations were ordered to remain grounded, including departures from Europe and Sydney International Airport in Australia. Meanwhile, certain inbound international flights managed to depart from select US airports as authorities attempted to clear congested ramp space.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy addressed reporters during a Friday evening news conference, explaining that the nationwide halt would trigger a ripple effect lasting several days.
“It’s going to take us some time to unwind what’s happened this afternoon,” Duffy told a news conference on Friday night. He attributed the incident to antiquated air traffic control equipment, noting that overloaded routers generated inconsistent data through intermittent instability in communication and radar systems.
Duffy maintained that the technical failure never placed any lives or active flights in immediate danger. Nevertheless, he argued that the underlying system requires a £50bn overhaul to prevent future crises.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin echoed those assessments, confirming investigators found no evidence pointing to a cyber-attack or a rogue artificial intelligence agent. Both Duffy and Mullin cautioned that identical disruptions could recur unless Congress approved comprehensive funding packages to upgrade aging air traffic control systems.
President Donal Trump requested $30.1bn for the necessary technical upgrades from Congress, where both chambers remain under Republican control. While Trump maintained an uncharacteristically public silence throughout the unfolding fiasco, Duffy and Mullin reported staying in constant communication with the president, who remained fully engaged.
“to confirm they were stable and that operations remain reliable” the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it had thoroughly tested its network before clearing operations to resume. Despite the reopening, industry veterans questioned the timing and long-term resilience of the network.
Former TSA Administrator John Pistole told the BBC that he felt “not optimistic” regarding the speed of recovery across domestic airports, highlighting the looming vulnerability ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday travel period. “The fact that they were able to get it restarted in four-and-a-half hours is good news – it shows a resilience in the system – but what’s to say it’s not going to happen tomorrow?” Pistole added.
Historically, nationwide ground stops of this magnitude remain extraordinarily rare. Aside from the multi-day groundings following the September 11 attacks, a severe failure within the Notice to Air Missions (Notam) system in 2023 forced a similar grounding lasting one hour and 52 minutes, which delayed roughly 9,500 flights and cancelled 1,300 others.
“This looks like the worst since 9/11, but clearly not on that scale,” Dr Guy Gratton, an associate professor of aviation at Cranfield University, told BBC Verify.
Disruption extended into Saturday, November 15, 2026, although secondary delays across the United Kingdom remained relatively contained. A limited number of flight cancellations occurred, while inbound US services into Heathrow and Manchester airports experienced minor schedule adjustments.
