US Airspace Reopens as Overloaded Switches Trigger Flight Chaos
The United States lifted a nationwide airport ground stop at 8:15 PM Eastern Time on November 13, 2026, after a system failure halted flights across the country. Airlines and travelers faced widespread delays as authorities restored air traffic systems, though officials warned that flight recovery across the network would remain slow throughout the evening.
Overloaded switches and legacy routers triggered the systemic shutdown, knocking critical communication systems offline across the nation’s aviation network. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and official Duffy confirmed that aging air traffic infrastructure failed under heavy data loads, explicitly ruling out a coordinated cyberattack or any link to a concurrent global Microsoft outage. The operational breakdown occurred just one day after the White House and aviation authorities formally requested $30 billion from Congress to upgrade and modernize the aging US Air Traffic Control System.
Passengers packed terminals across major hubs, including Orlando International Airport, as grounded aircraft awaited clearance to depart. While federal security and law enforcement agencies continue investigating the root cause, officials confirmed that intelligence networks detected no threat signatures, attack chatter, or malicious footprints associated with the disruption.
The nationwide freeze follows a series of technical disruptions affecting US infrastructure, underscoring growing vulnerability within legacy government communication networks.
