The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lifted the nationwide ground stop it ordered on November 13, 2026, and some flight departures are resuming, the agency said in a statement on its official X account. The FAA said it tested its systems to confirm they were stable before it cleared flights to resume.

The statement does not give a time for the end of the stop or name a cause, and the FAA says its technicians are investigating. AirPro News reported on the FAA’s original ground stop order on November 13.

What the FAA said

“The safety of the flying public is always the FAA’s highest priority,” the agency said in its X statement. It said the ground stop had been lifted and that some departures were resuming.

The FAA said that before clearing flights to resume, it had tested its systems to confirm they were stable and that operations remain reliable. It told passengers to contact their airlines for flight updates.

The agency’s statement on the nationwide ground stop, published on the FAA website on November 13, says the stop was ordered after communication problems affected multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers. “FAA technicians are investigating the issue,” the statement says. The FAA marks the statement as preliminary and subject to change.

What the command center advisory set out

Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) Advisory 111, time-stamped 20:54 UTC on November 13 and addressed to all aircraft operators, ground stopped all airports by order of the FAA command center, citing extraordinary circumstances and reasons of safety. It told operators that all departing traffic should remain on the ground until further notice.

The advisory listed the scope of the stop as all airports and the reason as equipment and outage. It gave an event window from 20:53 UTC on November 13 to 04:00 UTC on November 14, and said inbound international flights would be managed on a case by case basis.

What officials said

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin spoke to reporters at the White House on November 13, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also addressed the ground stop, The Associated Press reported. According to the AP, Trump administration officials said new technology added to the air traffic control system had overloaded older systems, leading to “intermittent” communications and radar gaps.

Mullin said the FAA was installing “new equipment, new technology” and that it “was overwhelming the older system,” the AP reported. Asked whether a cyberattack could be ruled out, Mullin said: “There’s nothing completely certain right now. It doesn’t appear that way.” He said there were no “footprints” of an attack. The AP reported that officials were still searching for the cause.

Mullin said no one was in danger and that more than 3,000 flights were safely landed, according to the AP. Duffy said 3,500 airplanes were in the sky when the stop began, and added: “And last time I looked, we had less than 400 in the airspace.” According to the AP, Duffy said he could not guarantee that it would not happen again.

Diversions and recovery

The AP reported that the ground stop was lifted on the night of November 13 after about five hours, and that limited domestic departures resumed that evening. About 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers had been scheduled to depart U.S. airports after 4 p.m. EST on November 13, according to the AP.

Citing Cirium data, the AP reported that at least 827 flights were diverted. As of 7:05 p.m. EST, 670 had been sent back to their departure airports and 157 had been redirected to other airports.

The AP reported that aircraft and crews were out of position after the stop and that a full recovery was expected to take days. Duffy said NCAA teams would be prioritized for travel to football games. Cargo flights were also delayed, and FedEx said it was prepared to activate contingency plans, according to the AP, which cited Airlines for America figures showing that U.S. airlines move about 61,000 tons (55,340 metric tonnes) of goods each day.

What comes next

The FAA has said its technicians are investigating and that it will provide updates. According to the AP, officials expect normal operations in time for the Thanksgiving travel rush.

This is a developing story. Information may change as official details are released.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered all airports ground stopped on November 13, 2026, after what the agency described as a temporary telecommunications outage. An advisory from the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) set the start of the ground stop at 20:53 UTC (3:53 p.m. EST) and told operators that departing traffic should remain on the ground until further notice.

In a statement posted on its official account on X on November 13, 2026, the FAA said:

“There has been a temporary telecommunications outage – out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted. Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis.”

What the command center advisory says

ATCSCC Advisory 111, time-stamped 20:54 UTC on November 13, is addressed to all aircraft operators. It states that, by order of the command center, all airports are ground stopped “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”

The advisory’s summary table lists the scope as all airports and the reason as equipment/outage. It gives an event window from 20:53 UTC on November 13 to 04:00 UTC on November 14 (11 p.m. EST on November 13), lists 04:00 UTC as the time of its next update, and says inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis.

A follow-up operations plan, ATCSCC Advisory 112, time-stamped 21:02 UTC, carried the national ground stop forward with an event time of 21:00 UTC “and later.” It repeated that all departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice.

What the FAA has not yet said

The FAA’s statement does not say where the telecommunications outage occurred, which systems or facilities were affected, or when departures are expected to resume. The FAA has not stated the cause of the outage.

Neither advisory gives the number of flights held on the ground or airborne when the order took effect. The FAA’s statement says every flight has been accounted for. The command center’s advisory lists 04:00 UTC on November 14 as its next scheduled update.

Owners and operators of single-engine turbine-powered airplanes in the United States will be able to replace annual or 100-hour inspections with a manufacturer-recommended inspection program, or with one they design themselves and the FAA approves, under a final rule the agency published in the Federal Register on November 10, 2026. The rule takes effect on January 11, 2027.

The FAA estimates the change will produce annualized net cost savings of $57.02 million, using a seven percent discount rate over a 10-year estimate. The same rule extends the deadline for mechanical reliability reports from 72 to 96 hours, opens the same inspection options to unmanned aircraft, and clarifies contract maintenance and technical data provisions for Part 145 repair stations.

What changes for owners and operators

Previously, single-engine turbine-powered airplanes were not authorized to use the alternative inspection options listed in 14 CFR 91.409(f). Those options include an inspection program that is part of a Part 121 or Part 135 operator’s Continuous Airworthiness Maintenance Program (CAMP), an approved aircraft inspection program under Part 135, a manufacturer-recommended inspection program, and a program created by the owner or operator and approved by the FAA. Under the final rule, these airplanes can use a manufacturer-recommended program or one created by the registered owner or operator, provided the Administrator approves it. The annual, 100-hour and progressive inspection programs remain available.

The FAA traces the gap to 1989, when it added inspection options to § 91.409(e) for turbine-powered rotorcraft. Single-engine turbine-powered airplanes were left out because they were less common than rotorcraft at the time. The agency says that is no longer the case, with more than 4,500 such airplanes now registered in the U.S., and that it sees no safety concerns that justify denying them the same flexibility. It says manufacturer-recommended programs for turbine-powered rotorcraft have consistently proven to be safe and effective alternatives to annual or 100-hour inspections.

The cost estimate assumes that every manufacturer of single-engine turbine-powered aircraft develops and makes available its own inspection program for that type, the rule says.

Drones, reporting and inoperative equipment

For unmanned aircraft operating under Part 135, the rule lets owners and operators follow the Part 91 inspection rules and choose either a manufacturer-recommended program or one established by the registered owner or operator, with the Administrator’s approval. Before the rule, the FAA accommodated drone operations under Parts 91 and 135 through exemptions and waivers that generally required the aircraft to follow the manufacturer’s inspection instructions. The agency noted that Part 135 drone operations are a minority of such operations and will decline in number once its rulemaking to create a new Part 108 for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations is completed, a rule AirPro News covered when the FAA released its draft Part 108 proposal.

In subpart K of Part 91, the reporting interval for mechanical reliability reports grows from 72 to 96 hours, matching §§ 121.703, 125.409, 135.415 and 145.221, and the reports can now be submitted electronically. The section heading changes from “Mechanical reliability reports” to “Service difficulty reports.”

The rule also clarifies § 91.405 so that repair is not the only maintenance action owners can take on a discrepancy found during inspection, adds a reference to the inoperative instruments and equipment rules in § 91.213, and states that there is no time limit on how long an inoperative item can stay inoperative, as long as it is inspected at each required inspection and has no adverse effect on the aircraft’s continued safe operation.

What it means for repair stations

For Part 145 repair stations, the rule removes the word “current” from the quality control manual requirement in § 145.211(c)(1)(v), so it now refers to establishing and maintaining technical data for maintaining articles. Five commenters had said the word caused confusion, and one argued it could lead stations to think they only had to keep current data. The rule also clarifies that § 145.217 on contract maintenance applies when a certificated repair station approves for return to service work performed by an outside source, using the term “outside source” throughout the section, and replaces “an article” with “the work” in parts of § 145.201. The 2024 proposal had also called for removing the phrase “for which the certificated repair station is rated” from § 145.201(a)(2), so that stations could arrange contract maintenance on articles they are not rated for. AirPro News has previously reported on the weight of return to service statements.

The FAA acknowledged that its proposal had left Part 145 repair stations out of the Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) and added them in the final rule, after four commenters said removing the “current” data requirement could represent millions of dollars in savings for stations.

How the rule got here

The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) was published on January 31, 2024, with comments accepted until May 1, 2024. The FAA received 21 comments, including one duplicate and two late submissions, eight from individuals and 13 from businesses. It received only supportive comments on the changes to Parts 91, 125, 135 and 137 and adopted those as proposed, while making several wording changes to Part 145 in response to commenters.

The rule amends 14 CFR Parts 91, 125, 135, 137 and 145. Technical questions go to Bryan B. Davis of the Airmen and Special Projects Branch, AFS-320, in the FAA’s Aircraft Maintenance Division, Flight Standards Service.