Thousands of flights canceled as airlines work to dig out from
nationwide ground stop
[November 14, 2026]
By WILL WEISSERT, JOSH FUNK and HALLIE GOLDEN
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 2,000 flights were canceled Saturday as
airlines across the U.S. worked to dig out from the longest nationwide
ground stop in 25 years, which stranded passengers and forced
professional and college sports teams to scramble for alternate
transportation.
Trump administration officials said new technology being added to the
nation’s air traffic control system overloaded antiquated equipment and
caused “intermittent” communications and radar gaps, leading to the
flight shutdown of more than four hours.
A limited number of domestic flights departed after the stop was lifted
around 8:15 p.m. ET. But the effects could be felt for days, with
officials saying the system is likely to be operating normally in time
to handle the Thanksgiving travel rush.
The nationwide stop was the first since January 2023, when another key
FAA computer system that sends notices to pilots malfunctioned, and the
second since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Emily Brown and her 14-year-old daughter waited more than four hours
Friday at the Dallas airport for their flight to Columbus, Ohio, before
giving up. They were traveling to surprise her daughter’s best friend.
Instead, she had to settle for phoning the friend through tears in the
airport, Brown said.
“She saved up her money to buy her own ticket, and she’s planned this
whole weekend,” Brown said. “Now we’re not sure when we’re gonna be able
to go.”
Ruth Coles was stuck on her plane for more than five hours after landing
at Los Angeles International Airport from Newark, New Jersey. She said
the passengers were told they were waiting for a gate to open.
“The pilot keeps saying they are telling him we are next in line,” Coles
said.
Thousands of flights delayed and canceled
At airports across the U.S., passengers stared at screens showing delays
or rushed to find buses or trains to their destinations. Some passed the
time by breaking out in song.
Sports teams scheduled to play this weekend adjusted game start times,
searched for hotel rooms, rescheduled flights and chartered buses.
Auburn University's football team opted to take a bus to Mississippi
State and the Saturday start time was pushed from noon ET to 4:15 p.m.
Other universities affected by the stoppage included Baylor, Washington,
Kansas State, Minnesota and No. 19 Ole Miss, which did not plan to fly
until Saturday morning for its game against Oklahoma.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy encouraged NCAA football teams to
reach out to the FAA so the agency can prioritize flights for Saturday
games.
More than 2,500 flights were canceled in the U.S. Saturday and hundreds
more were delayed, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks
flight disruptions.
Corbyn Wascher's flight was on the tarmac at the Charlotte Douglas
International Airport for four hours Friday on his way home to Moline,
Illinois, from a conference in Miami. Everyone was cordial on the
American Airlines plane as they talked and stretched their legs and the
flight attendants handed out water, pretzels and biscotti snacks, he
said.
“The stewardesses were amazing. You could tell that they were pretty
stressed out,” said the 37-year-old high school teacher, who took a $100
uber to a hotel 25 minutes from the airport after he was unable to find
new flights. He was scheduled for a Saturday afternoon flight to Chicago
O’Hare International Airport.
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Passengers wait as flights are delayed inside a terminal at
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in
Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Officials say no one was in danger during ground stop
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told reporters at
the White House that no one was in any danger as more than 3,000
flights were safely landed Friday.
Duffy blamed Congress for failing to approve more funding for new
technology, while downplaying the fact that trying to implement new
fixes overtaxed the system. He suggested more disruptions might
occur.
“We didn’t think we would have this kind of outage. We did,” he
said. “We were able to review what went wrong, and then reboot the
system and go. But, you will have more of these.”
Duffy said the problems were not linked to the FAA’s new AI-powered
system the agency is rolling out to help predict problems in the sky
because that isn’t connected to Friday's failure.
“This is all the old legacy equipment. All of the new equipment
that’s been deployed did not go down,” Duffy said.
The FAA has already replaced thousands of old copper wires with
fiber optic lines and upgraded hundreds of radio systems as part of
the overhaul that began last year after Congress approved $12.5
billion of funding. Duffy and the White House are pushing for $30
billion more to complete the work.
Past problems have been linked to equipment failures
The problem appeared similar to a regional air traffic control
communication outage in September that snarled hundreds of flights
across the Northeast, although that disruption was linked to a
construction crew cutting a fiber optic line. Aging equipment was
also blamed for the brief radar outages last year that disrupted
Newark airport.
Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said the difference this time is
it happened on a nationwide scale that left controllers unable to
reliably talk to pilots.
“If you don’t have that ability, whether it’s because the old wires
that they have are just run down or for whatever reason, you’ve got
to stop airplanes on the ground and not put them in the air, where
you’re going to risk not being able to communicate with them,” said
Arroyo, a former United Airlines pilot.
Friday’s ground stop also was different from the one after 9/11
because planes were not being told to land immediately and pilots
likely were able to communicate with ground controllers at airports,
Arroyo said.
___
Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska, and Golden from Seattle.
Associated Press journalists Mead Gruver in Fort Collins, Colorado;
Jessica Hill in Las Vegas; Ali Swenson in Chicago; Alex Veiga and
Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles; Seung Min Kim and Aamer Madhani in
Washington; and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed to
this report.
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