# FAA grounds all US flights Friday

> The Federal Aviation Administration halted all US flights Friday afternoon due to radio frequency outages at major air traffic control centers.
- Title: FAA grounds all US flights Friday · WIRED | Shortify
- Summary: The Federal Aviation Administration halted all US flights Friday afternoon due to radio frequency outages at major air traffic control centers.
- Keywords: faa, air traffic control, ground stop, radio frequency outage, boston, chicago, new york, sean duffy, san francisco international airport, WIRED
- Source: WIRED — https://wired.com/story/faa-grounds-all-us-flights-until-further-notice
- Author: Aarian Marshall
- Published: 2026-11-13T21:31:03.379+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: faa, air traffic control, ground stop, radio frequency outage, boston, chicago, new york, sean duffy, san francisco international airport
## FAA halts all US flights
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all US flights Friday afternoon due to extraordinary circumstances and safety reasons. Flights already airborne were allowed to land, but no new departures were permitted.
## Radio outages hit control centers
The ground stop followed widespread radio frequency outages at critical Air Traffic Control Centers in Boston, Chicago, and New York. Controllers use these frequencies to communicate with pilots and manage airspace safety.
## Communication issue under investigation
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that the ground stop was related to a communication issue affecting Air Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the cause of the outage.
## System modernization called urgent
Susan Hotle, a professor of transportation engineering at Virginia Tech who worked at the FAA, said the outage shows the need to modernize air traffic control.

> Right now all it takes is for one system to go out, and it affects a wide region at once.
## Ground stop ends by evening
The FAA's ground stop ended by eight forty-five pm EST Friday. An extended outage would have caused airline systems to fall into chaos and taken days to recover, according to Michael McCormick, a professor at…
## Key takeaway

The FAA grounded all US flights Friday due to communication issues at air traffic control centers; the ground stop ended by eight forty-five pm EST.