The FAA Grounded EVERY Plane in America | Pilot Explains

FAA Ground Stop on November 13

Captain Steve says the nationwide FAA ground stop lasted about four hours and 39 minutes. He reports that it led to roughly 5,000–6,000 cancellations and another 9,000 delays.

He describes the shutdown as an extraordinary safety measure—not evidence that aircraft already in the air were in immediate danger.

Possible Cause

The FAA reportedly attributed the outage to aging infrastructure, including old copper wiring, while the precise cause remained under investigation. Captain Steve focuses on a report that contractor L3Harris was performing a network-wide upgrade that triggered a reboot and cascading communications failure.

He considers this explanation more likely than a cyberattack, though he says a cyberattack had not been ruled out.

Why the Outage Mattered

Captain Steve describes ERAM as a system that helps track aircraft, manage flight plans, identify potential conflicts, and coordinate handoffs among the country’s 20 air traffic control centers. If these functions or communications fail, controllers may have to manage traffic manually and could lose access to important flight-plan information.

A nationwide ground stop prevents more aircraft from entering an already strained system while aircraft in the air land and operations recover.

Aircraft Already in the Air

Pilots train for loss-of-radio, or “NORDO,” situations. Captain Steve says they can continue using onboard navigation and their flight plans, transmit without receiving replies, and use the emergency frequency. However, that frequency could become congested if many aircraft use it at once.

He also notes that TCAS, an onboard collision-avoidance system, operates independently of ground communications. Local towers remained available for aircraft approaching airports, though these procedures are not ideal for routine operations.

Airport Disruptions and Modernization

The disruption also created problems on the ground: arriving aircraft filled available gates while departures were halted, complicating parking and passenger handling.

Captain Steve argues that the incident underscores the need to modernize the air traffic control system. He urges Congress to fund and accelerate the upgrade, warning that similar failures remain possible while the system is vulnerable.

Presenters and Contributors

• Captain Steve: Presenter
• Kennedy Steve: Referenced as a source of related reporting