Overview
- The FAA ordered all U.S. departures to remain on the ground on Friday after multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers experienced a widespread communications outage and revoked the ground stop about four to five hours later.
- Agency technicians traced the disruption to overloaded or malfunctioning network equipment, including switches and routers, that behaved erratically during routine maintenance that moved some copper lines to fiber.
- The stoppage and slow recovery produced heavy operational fallout with roughly 16,000 total flight cancellations, an estimated 1.1–1.3 million passengers affected, and Eurocontrol suspending departures to the United States at the FAA's request.
- Federal officials say they have found no evidence so far of a deliberate cyberattack, that defective components have been isolated, and that normal flight operations should be restored by Sunday evening as airlines reposition aircraft and crews.
- Transportation leaders are calling for a major funding push after the incident, citing decades‑old hardware and prior 2025 funding of $12.5 billion, and are requesting about $50 billion to rebuild the network to reduce the risk of repeat disruptions ahead of the Thanksgiving travel period.