Legacy tech issue led to FAA’s nationwide ground stop
ByFrank Konkel,
Editor-in-Chief
November 13, 2026 10:17 PM ET
The ground stop delayed more than 10,000 flights Friday, though officials said there was no indication of a cyber-attack or relation to the Microsoft outage earlier in the week.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop for more than four hours across all U.S. airports Friday, citing “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” impacting at least 10,000 flights and disrupting air travel for more than 2 million passengers.
The ground stop was lifted around 9 p.m. EST, after which Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed the ground stop on outdated legacy IT systems in a briefing at the White House.
“This is a legacy system problem that took place tonight, and we have to handle it accordingly,” said Duffy, who himself was on a flight back to Washington, D.C. from...
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