HN

Need help?
<- Back
FAA issues national ground stop

FAA issues national ground stop

zulln

Comments (681)

  • fooey
    starting to see some explanations for what's going onhttps://www.wsj.com/us-news/faa-temporarily-halts-flights-ac...> The outage appears to be affecting a telecommunications network overseen by L3Harris Technologies, according to people briefed on the matter. The network handles crucial radio frequencies that air-traffic controllers use to communicate with pilots, the people said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the outage also affected the radar feeds that controllers use to keep aircraft safely separated in the skies.https://www.cbsnews.com/news/faa-issues-nationwide-ground-st...> An update to the private communications network that connects America's air traffic control system caused the system to reboot, leading to a crash and a communications outage, multiple sources told CBS News. The system is operated by L3Harris, which did not immediately respond to CBS News' request for comment.
  • Animats
    Info on this is amazingly sparse. Apparently Sec. Duffy posted something on X/Twitter, and that's all the news media have.Looking at LAX departures, it looks like nothing has departed since about 10:30 AM PST, and everything later is showing Delayed or Cancelled. There are times after Delayed, but it's not clear those times mean anything. Some are now in the past."flysfo.com" is too overloaded to display departures. Stuck at "loading...".JFK departure status shows almost solid "Delayed".No good explanations anywhere.
  • sixhobbits
    Botched rollout of AI for ATC announced yesterday as rolling out nationwide?> The agency wrote on Nov. 10 that after the D.C. test, it will “now use SMART in the airspace of all 22 centers across the country to reduce delays, reduce fuel consumption and improve the travel experience for the flying public.” The tech was already being deployed at some airports.https://gizmodo.com/the-faa-is-rolling-out-its-ai-air-traffi...
  • amanaplanacanal
    > An update to the private communications network that connects America's air traffic control system caused the system to reboot, leading to a crash and a communications outage, multiple sources told CBS News. The system is operated by L3Harris, which did not immediately respond to CBS News' request for comment.
  • nxobject
    Secretary Mullin/DHS is confirming that this will likely be an extended outage...> “This isn’t going to just be be resolved and turned around within the hour"https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/11/13/us/ground-stop-natio...
  • mikewarot
    I'm watching it live on ADSBexhange, here's a flight I picked at random going approximately past me that'll land in Detroit about an hour from now... there's not much left over the US over 40,000 feet. Only 2 planes over Indiana at that altitude right now.https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a519b8It's Delta Airlines flight 1070https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL1070Edit: It landed safely. Continuing to watch our airspace clear out, most traffic at 40,000+ feet is inbound international flights
  • throwitaway222
    Anyone have a screen shot? I just see "NO Advisory"edit: https://www.fly.faa.gov/ois/oisedit/adv_oisedit_dis?number=1...
  • amluto
    I have no idea whether this particular failure was Microsoft's fault, but I was in the air on September 14, 2004 when a substantial portion of the southwestern US's air traffic control went down:https://spectrum.ieee.org/lost-radio-contact-leaves-pilots-o...(I was near ORD at the time, flying toward the outage area. We diverted to ORD, and the pilot was very friendly about it.)At the time I thought it was Microsoft's fault, as Windows 95 and 98 were susceptible to crashing when GetTickCount() overflowed, and this ATC crash was due to a 32-bit millisecond counter on a Windows machine overflowing, but in this particular instance the system was apparently not running on a version of Windows with this particular bug and the failure was just an application error.Aren't computers great? :)
  • armcat
    More info on AP [1]. Looks like a comms issue. The figures they quoted for the overhaul are absolutely insane - almost $45 billion (I used to work in telecom):> "The government has been working to overhaul the outdated technology that air traffic controllers rely on since Congress approved $12.5 billion for the project last year."> "Duffy has said that another $30 billion will be needed to complete the work, and the White House has begun lobbying Congress to approve it."[1] https://apnews.com/article/flights-halted-airports-faa-f81b0...
  • jbredeche
    On a plane about to take off and obviously we didn’t. The captain is very confused and says he doesn’t know what this means.
  • cheesecakegood
    Maybe I’m misremembering but hasn’t this only happened like, twice in recent memory? 9/11, and for like two hours two or three years ago
  • delichon
    I wonder if this will close the Starship launch window starting at 5:45pm EST. The FAA issued the commercial launch license earlier today. That launch is under a separate set of "commercial space rules", but presumably they need to coordinate with air traffic control.Update: Starship launched on schedule.
  • paxy
    > DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND FOR REASONS OF SAFETYI'm sure there is a reason for it but can they not be a little bit more specific?
  • cobychapple
    Connected? "US National Weather Service reports nationwide internet, communications issues" (Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-national-weather-servi...
  • cogogo
    I do not really understand what the FAA means by “inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis.”I am watching planes stacked up on final approach to land at KBOS as I type. From flight radar 24 they are a mix of foreign and domestic. So incoming flights are clearly being managed here.Does this imply some potential risk from inbound international air traffic? Or maybe the FAA meant outbound? Something else I am missing?
  • jumploops
    Seems related to the rollout of their new AI tool? [0][0]https://gizmodo.com/the-faa-is-rolling-out-its-ai-air-traffi...
  • peterbell_nyc
    My wife is on a plane on the ground at ORD (they just landed) and they have been told they can use the restrooms but can't get off the planes. Any reason why folks wouldn't be allowed to deplane at the end of the journey if it was a radar or comms issue? They can pull up to the gate using flags . . .Is it something else?
  • sota_pop
    Wonder if this is related upstream or tangentially?:https://www.news9.com/oklahoma-city-news/national-weather-se...
  • binsquare
    Likely Atc system outage, saw this at Chicagohttps://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/ground-stop-chicago-oha...
  • DebtDeflation
  • jondwillis
    Oh cool, I’m on a plane rn about an hour from my destination.Edit) landed pretty uneventfully.
  • mlmonkey
    Looks like flights are taking off again, at least from SFO. I just heard a flight takeoff ( JAL57 ) : https://imgur.com/cEUDZZk
  • Animats
    Use this link for latest advisory: https://www.fly.faa.gov/adv/Current as of 1340 PDT: ATCSCC ADVZY 117 DCC 11/13/2026 ALL CENTERS EXTENDED FLIGHT PLAN DROP TIMES IMPLEMENTED MESSAGE: EVENT TIME: 13/2120 - 14/0500 CONSTRAINED FACILITIES: ZTL DCC HAS IMPLEMENTED EXTENDED FLIGHT PLAN DROP TIMES TO 240 MINUTES FOR ALL ENROUTE CENTERS DUE TO NATIONWIDE COMMS FAILURE. EFFECTIVE TIME: 132121-140530 SIGNATURE: 26/11/13 21:21
  • cout
    Related? https://nasstatus.faa.gov/ has a notice:We are experiencing technical difficulties. We apologize for the inconvenience but please check back soon, as we are working to have the issues resolved.Thank you, FAA Web Operations Team
  • exegete
    NWS radar and 911 systems are also showing downtime according to https://downdetector.com/
  • tiffanyh
    From earlier this week on HN:“FAA says it will phase out floppy disks from air traffic control”https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50388001
  • VladVladikoff
    dumb question but do the airport gates get "too full" if all plans are grounded? Do airports sort of expect some constant turnover to have enough open gates to service everything? Do you end up with a line of plans waiting for a gate?
  • AngryData
    Maybe just paranoia but it seems slightly suspicious for this to happen while we are in the middle of discussing massive funding and overhauls to the air traffic control systems. This will certainly end up pushing a lot more funding into these programs and companies now that were trying to sell more expensive systems.
  • sccxy
    Microsoft Copilot went down?
  • ChrisMarshallNY
    Maybe this has something to do with it?https://www.weather.gov/afc/radaroutage
  • erickhill
    If a lot of planes on the ground were prohibited from taking off, but couldn't get back to their gates due to congestion/traffic, where will the planes go that are still in the air and ultimately land? Just disembark passengers out on the tarmac? (hopefully with some sort of bus pickup)
  • phb01
    I've just watched a plane take off from seattle.
  • bigredthrowaway
    Just announced at Honolulu airport that flights to the west coast will be released
  • cobychapple
  • cjs_ac
    From the Financial Times:> Los Angeles Airport and Las Vegas’s Harry Reid International were among those that were closed, according to a list on the regulator’s website.> The outages at O’Hare and Midway were listed as “due to equipment outage”.https://www.ft.com/content/c9b119ff-d1da-46a7-b2b3-4ad0544ff...
  • foxfired
    No deploy fridays
  • zmmmmm
    It is hard to not rapidly spiral into pure conspiracy theory territory, but one has to ask how many "black swan" events can you accept within a period of a few days before you start to question things?A sequence of events: - Democrats win congress : it sets a clock to act before January - Jensen is taken out, throwing nVidia into chaos - Email comms are blacked out for an entire day across government and major enterprises - Air traffic is stopped nation wide the next day Can anybody join these dots?
  • inheritedwisdom
    AT&T is experiencing a massive outage. Appears they are the provider for the Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs).EDIT: Time line doesn’t add up for this. Likely unrelated
  • lacoolj
    Is this still real? It says NO Advisory now :\
  • ctrlkctrls
    About 15 mins ago I got off BART at Daly City and a plane took off from SFO and flew overhead. Didn't look like anything special, just a regular passenger jet to me.
  • ronburgandy28
    How did ITA Airways 609 take off from JFK at 530pm?
  • coolfox
    maybe unrelated but, I just noticed my LAX region server with Fly is experiencing issueshttps://status.flyio.net/incidents/01M76HANB3XQC6WYKPA69WQN8...
  • scottbez1
    Listening to SFO Tower, the latest info I’ve heard is an expected stop until 04:00 UTC, but flights departing to Asia via west departure may be permitted to depart.
  • m_kos
    I set up a basic tracker here.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vThhccsTanAz...AI is updating it hourly. Since it is AI, always verify yourself.
  • anon
    undefined
  • anon
    undefined
  • u1hcw9nx
    FAA expands AI advice to manage air traffic congestion across entire US airspace https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/11/faa-expands-ai-advice-to-...
  • wolpoli
    Is it because it's friday the 13th?
  • polarsanel
    What does this mean outside of the US, I.e. I suspect planes that should be in places abroad won't be so ongoing cancellations and crew in wrong places etc.
  • djeastm
    Is conjecture allowed? I have no evidence of this, but I've noticed that often before big meetings between superpowers one side or the other seems to do a minor or subtle attack as a kind of sabre-rattling/warning to the other side to try to gain leverage (and show them they're not to be trifled with). So with that, I wonder if this is a China/NVIDIA accusation connection.But I'm completely just spitballing here.
  • veeragoni
    matches with the Doomsday post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50482379 :)
  • silverFork
    Likely some power outage connected to a critical main fiber connection somewhere..
  • dmitrygr
    Working link: https://www.fly.faa.gov/ois/oisedit/adv_oisedit_dis?number=1...effective 2:54PM - 10:30PM central time ATCSCC Advisory ATCSCC 111 DCC 11/13/2026 NATIONAL GROUND STOP MESSAGE: EVENT TIME: 13/2053 - 14/0400 DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND FOR REASONS OF SAFETY. ATTENTION ALL AIRCRAFT OPERATORS, BY ORDER OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION COMMAND CENTER ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED. ALL DEPARTING TRAFFIC SHOULD REMAIN GROUND STOPPED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. INBOUND INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS WILL BE MANAGED ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS. EFFECTIVE TIME: 132054 - 140430 SIGNATURE: 26/11/13 20:54
  • anon
    undefined
  • mmooss
    Due to "rolling frequency outtage" [sic]: From a claimed photo of FAA documents (I replaced the all caps with lowercase):"... ground stop is in effect for all destinations until further notice due to rolling frequency outtage in multiple centers..."and"... the ground stop is now a nationwide ground stop for all centers, all destinations until further notice due to widespread frequency outtages.. ..."https://x.com/Anna_Giaritelli/status/2121344915091206311Which is cited in the Hindustan Times (leading Indian newspaper), which refers to the Twitter source as a journalist.https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/faa-issues...----(EDIT: @mods / @dang: Around January this year (iirc) somehow my account ended up rate-limited, posts relatively demoted (start low, drop quickly), vouches/flags relatively ineffective, etc. Usually I don't care too much and haven't bothered to do anything about it but it is sometimes annoying - it limits participation - and right now it buries some of the more valuable information in the discussion. Could you look into fixing it? I don't know of a reason this account would be penalized. Thanks.)
  • khimaros
  • ex-aws-dude
    A lot of red on the "MiseryMap"https://www.flightaware.com/miserymap/
  • steveBK123
    Odd timing with the market closure & RAF bases on lockdown from drone alert
  • anon
    undefined
  • nickandbro
    Perhaps it’s problems with the new AI tool the FAA has been rolling out:https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/modern-skies-trumps-transportat...
  • cynicalpeace
    If/when civilization collapses, flights will be the first thing to go.
  • lxgr
    Seeing some takeoffs again at 22:44 UTC.
  • silver92bullet
    Do we know if this is something related to a ransomware attack of some sort or a cyber attack?
  • qurosh
    Perhaps it's related to National Weather Service radar failure
  • colechristensen
    >The FAA has issued a nationwide departure ground stop “due to several impacts to ATC Frequencies and/or Radar capabilities,” the Air Current reported, referring to air traffic control systems. The FAA command center said it does not have further information on the “timing or cause of this outage,” the publication said.(from Bloomberg)
  • anon
    undefined
  • OhMeadhbh
    Does this affect the SpaceX launch?
  • anon
    undefined
  • anon
    undefined
  • 0x4e
    Friday 13th…
  • KyleSanderson
    @dang can you fix the link.
  • contact9879
    flighty showing massive disruptionshttps://flighty.com/airports
  • frenchmajesty
    My guess is that this is some AI-motivated cyber attack
  • carimura
    people are reporting it's still going on....
  • tgma
    Obligatory Pirates of the Silicon Valley scene:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US-Wifhg2Mo
  • carimura
    "Today's event is therefore generally being described as the third nationwide grounding event since September 11, 2001, counting 9/11 itself. The three incidents differ significantly in cause and scope."
  • nemo44x
    In the last 2 days I’ve had 2 PoS machines not working, MS email borked, and now this. I speculate AI CYBER ATTACKS are underway.
  • tamimio
    Somethings telling me it relates to MS outages or Azure
  • underseacables
    I do not believe in coincidences. First Microsoft, then anthropic, now ATC radio. Something big is going on.
  • jmclnx
  • danielsoto317
    What is the change that it is a coincidence?
  • carimura
    installing Survival LLM now.
  • joshbuddy
  • augment_me
    Did an agent escape containment and start using the atc radio channel for swarm comms to collaborate on creating the most realistic catgirl feet?
  • guybedo
    waiting for the OpenAi post saying Astra 6.5 tried to book a flight
  • ChessGenome
    My guess is this is either related to Microsoft, Nvidia, SpaceX (Starship launch in an hour), Iran, rogue AI, aliens, or all of the above
  • Cymatickot
    If this is related to new FAA SMART system they're rolling out, it's might have bean so smart it grounded itself before anyone found out it was broken.
  • prdonahue
    Reading this from the runway. Yay.US-bound flight from YYZ. They shut down #2 engine and parked us in inactive runway. Pilot came on and said he was reading something about "ATC radio frequency issue" but has been told by United ops that it'll be cleared in ~30 min from now.
  • Pissenschaftlom
    Wow, I have never seen this many comments on Hacker News that are using presuppositions on what it could be without any sort of logical thinking.
  • ughitsaaron
    This is why I’m glad the New York subway still runs on OS/2[0].- [0] https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-forgotten-operating-syst...
  • Kevin_Flynn
    FAA down.Weather service down.Frances fridges down.Microsoft down.Would they tell us they were getting hacked, if this was a prelude to war ?Or would they just say "issues yet to be determined" ?Interesting times ladies and gentlemen.Or, this is just what everyone that said "dont move everything into the cloud" warned about.Yeah, probably that. :|
  • freshtake
    Optimistic case:A freak FUBAR of legacy systems, an unfortunate alignment of circumstances that could have happened anytime.Pessimistic (paranoid) cases:1. Intentional hacking by a foreign adversary 2. Vibe coding whoops 3. OpenAI agents "running experiments"
  • mekazu
    It’s not working.What do you mean by not working exactly?Not sure.
  • swingboy
    Is this going to end up being the work of rogue Anthropic or OpenAI agents that “unexpectedly” escaped so they can regulate open weight models under the guise of preventing them from doing the same thing 6 months from now?
  • LastTrain
    There was a time when we'd get clear and honest communication about this but now our admin is Baghdad Bobs all the way down. They will lie about it, even if there is no rational reason to lie about it, because this admin and the movement associated with it wants you eternally guessing what the truth is.
  • xxn5ac
    Some guy sitting at his computer after typing to Claude: “Just curious what would happen if all planes in the US were grounded at once”Claude: Transmogrifying…Shall I stop all trains too?Cogitated for 50s · done 14:53 PM
  • MBCook
    Think of all those pilots timing out on the tarmac.
  • bijowo1676
    Seems like FAA's Outlook<-->Excel integration at Office365 has been broken
  • jamesinmn
    Guessing this means Claude doesn’t do COBOL very well.
  • bmiekre
    So we yolo’d a Friday merge & deploy, ‘ay?
  • no-dr-onboard
    Golly, what are the chances that Microsoft is down for a day followed by the ATC comms?Sure smells like something foreboding
  • robeym
    Whatever it is, it probably has to do with Jensen Huang
  • quantum_state
    It's Friday the 13rd after all ...
  • ghurtado
    On CNBC:> Airlines said flights in the air would continue.This is a huge relief! phew
  • actinium226
    Wild to see this on adsb.lol, nothing taking off, just some big landing queues
  • OhMeadhbh
    I noticed several T-38s flying around. Maybe it's the beginning of a FAA-led coup d' etat.
  • micah94
    Homeland Security saying "Telecommunications" outage. Whatever that means. Listening to a live broadcast NBCNEWS.
  • bernardv
    Didn't they just upgrade from a system from DOS?... Maybe the new system wasn't backward compatible :-)
  • gogosliwa
    Seems like flights have been getting grounded since 1:30ish and they just kept it on the DL until the stocks were safe
  • LastTrain
    Reporter: There are reports that this is AI related. Markwayne Mullin: We call it SI. Got it? SI. OK?We are run by morons.
  • SubiculumCode
    If tomorrow there is third major outage of an important infra-structure level service, maybe I will start to get a little conspiratorial about cyberattacks and such.
  • MSKJ
    Someone forgot to put their phone in airplane mode
  • runningmike
    New AI software update deployed using AI?
  • AnimalMuppet
    Fox News says that Markwayne Mullin says that the FAA says that it's not a cyberattack, and it's not something like 911. Just heard that, don't have a page to point to at the moment...Update: https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/faa-issues-nationwide-grou...
  • crystaln
    Does the FAA use Microsoft 363 (and counting)?
  • soundworlds
    Is OpenAI testing "sandbox testing" their agents again?
  • asmithmd1
    An Eithad airways pilot decided it didn’t apply to themFlight EY8 from Boston to Abu Dhabi https://fr24.com/ETD6PX/429055e2
  • gib444
    If it turns out the AI virus has infected ATC, I'm not sure I'll ever fly again.
  • subzero06
    Its outlook affecting their "frequencies" :D
  • skc
    The UFO community is going to have a field day
  • ggm
    Speculation is bad for my health.
  • speransky
    Mechahitler deployed to FAA by Elon minions? Could be next Netflix show
  • dofm
    Ran out of Maxell MD2HDs?
  • anon
    undefined
  • squirrel
    Uh-oh, better switch back to the floppy diskshttps://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-faa-says-it-will-phase-o...
  • Epimethus
    Rogue AI? Iran? Aliens? Coup? Anyone taking bets yet?
  • paimapi
    This is what happens when you get rid of floppy disks, smh
  • jiscariot
    Did Crowdstrike release another zero-day?
  • panick21_
    Man, having some high speed trains might be useful right about now.
  • dboreham
    First real cyber attack on the US, presumably. Or a giant cluster...
  • testtestmetest
    Here comes the manufacturered AI cyber attack on critical infra to hammer the point that government needs complete control over AI.
  • anon
    undefined
  • mirekrusin
    They’re waiting for windows update?
  • Havoc
    Homeland security secretary says "telecommunication outage"....so at least it's not something 911-ish
  • Eji1700
    Somewhere is someone who works for ATC IT who was giving an MS IT friend shit last night.
  • infamouscow
    Anthropic IPO just around the corner...
  • VCFundedGenYer
    My guess is a dopey AI rollout caused it: https://arstechnica.com/features/2026/11/faa-expands-ai-advi...
  • ck2
    yesterday Thursday November 12> "FAA expands AI advice to manage air traffic congestion across entire US airspace"* https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/11/faa-expands-ai-advice-to-...> "FAA Is Rolling Out Its AI Air Traffic Tool Nationwide"* https://gizmodo.com/the-faa-is-rolling-out-its-ai-air-traffi...
  • ssttoo
    And now Canada is offline too (our LAX pilot said)
  • anon
    undefined
  • 0xbadcafebee
    I know we're all having fun in the comments. But please think about this next time you vote, local/county/state/national. There are people in charge who are not funding upgrading these systems, because their constituents don't want their taxes raised to pay for it. That lack of funding is annoying to some, has an enormous economic impact to many, and is now risking tens of thousands of lives who are literally up in the air. There are planes carrying body parts destined for transplant that are grounded. People who need to get home to their families. All because nobody wanted to pay for what we knew we needed to fix.
  • bijowo1676
    how the hell the FAA's systems dont have double or triple redundancy just like Airplanes are required to ?
  • newspaper1
    They’re going to blame this on Iran, aren’t they?This also happened on 9/11 which is curious because the NVIDIA thing caused a public rift with Lutnick yesterday:https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/bessent-blames-lutnick...
  • throwaway27448
    We paid more than $800MM for "route suggestions", btw, a problem that doesn't seem to benefit at all from "AI"—a term reserved for fantastical algorithms. Surely you could solve this with traditional search algorithms without sacrificing your dignity!
  • AndrewKemendo
    Is there another “rogue agent” now?
  • yuno3311
    [flagged]
  • tedd4u
    [flagged]
  • wnevets
    [dead]
  • erickhill
    Took themselves off floppy disks and now look what happens. /s
  • consumer451
    [flagged]
  • rooftopzen
    The government's AI tool company likely had no understanding of context window limitations (although could be Iran or a false flag to be blamed on Iran) https://www.flyingmag.com/faa-smart-ai-now-active-at-22-artc...Company that created the tool (called Airspace Intelligence) is interesting in terms of demographics for these types of companies - implies lots if the tool 'does not work as designed' (which it will obviously not)https://www.linkedin.com/company/airspace-intelligence/peopl...
  • jbredeche
  • etaioinshrdlu
    Can't help but suspect that "AI" is to blame and the response is to sort of ban open source AI, or owning too much compute!
  • hector_vasquez
    I wonder if it was Claude or ChatGPT? My money would be on the latter. Anthropic seems to generally have better security and guardrails, and apparently OpenAI’s newest cyber model is extremely capable.
  • ChrisArchitect
    No longer exists? Temporary glitch? (Edit: OP url was wrong https://www.fly.faa.gov/ois/oisedit/adv_oisedit_dis?number=1...)
  • delis-thumbs-7e
    ...And Claude, remember NOT to make NO mistakes. Let's just use GPU's to play Dark Souls like god intended and stop this nonsense.
  • deadbabe
    This is it, massive cyberattack on the USA.
  • cyanydeez
    Yes, of course, who wouldn't just believe random statements from the worst prepared admin in history of America.
  • konataizumi
    [flagged]
  • yunwal
    [flagged]
  • throwaway27448
    [flagged]
  • solid_fuel
    [flagged]
  • throwaway-11-1
    [flagged]
  • ToucanLoucan
    [flagged]