{"id":230633,"date":"2026-11-14T04:03:04","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T04:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-flights-allowed-to-take-off-again-as-nationwide-ground-stop-lifted-but-delays-expected-bbc\/"},"modified":"2026-11-14T04:03:04","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T04:03:04","slug":"us-flights-allowed-to-take-off-again-as-nationwide-ground-stop-lifted-but-delays-expected-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-flights-allowed-to-take-off-again-as-nationwide-ground-stop-lifted-but-delays-expected-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"US flights allowed to take off again as nationwide ground stop lifted but delays expected – BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says a nationwide ground stop has been lifted<\/a> after an outage halted all flights
Duffy says the travel chaos is going to take time to unwind, with many passengers still stranded at airports
White House officials said earlier the ground stop was due to an air traffic control communications issue – here's what we know so far<\/a>
There's zero evidence this was a cyber-attack<\/a> against the US, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says – what else did he say?<\/a>
The incident was the largest groundstop in the US since the one after 11 September 2001<\/a>
US bound flights from across Europe were suspended after a Federal Aviation Administration request
This video can not be played
Edited by Christal Hayes and Helen Davidson
We told you earlier that Delta was resuming flights, now we're hearing from United Airlines.
The airline says they are resuming "some Friday night flights" in the wake of the FAA lifting its ground stop.
"Safety is our highest priority as we take care of our customers and employees," the social media statement goes on to say.
United does not make any mention of how future flights, after Friday night, will be impacted.
In the time since the FAA-mandated ground stop has been lifted, we've started to hear from some major American airlines.
Among them is Delta Airlines, which has taken to social media to say they were "safely resuming flights".
"Thank you for your understanding as we work as quickly as possible to fully restore normal operations," the social media post went on to say.
Though airspace has now been re-opened, many passengers will remain stranded as airports try to work through a backlog of flights.
The BBC spoke to Vanessa, who is currently moving interstate with her family from Colorado to Florida.
Travelling with her husband, two children and five cats, she says that communication from staff at the airport has been really unclear.
Three donkeys have gone ahead of the family on the trailer, and at this stage, they are likely to beat them to their new home in Florida.
Vanessa says her kids are a little anxious, but she is trying to remind them that everything is an adventure.
"Whatever is gonna happen is gonna happen," she says.
\"\"<\/span><\/span>Oliver O'Connell<\/strong>
Reporting from Newark airport<\/span>
There was a big gasp from passengers seated at the gates here in Terminal B at Newark airport in New Jersey, as news broke that the ground stop had been lifted.
Passengers are now boarding an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle – gate agents are working quickly to clear the backlog on the concourse as soon as possible.
Most of the passengers here are supposed to fly across to the West Coast – the mood has lifted but some passengers have been here for almost five hours since their flights were delayed.
My 19:23 EST (00:23 GMT) flight is now scheduled for 23:58 EST. Instead of arriving in Los Angeles at a reasonable 22:43 PST, I will now land at 02:54 PST – needless to say, I\u2019m not happy.
This video can not be played
US ground stop caused by 'incredibly old air traffic control system', Duffy says
The news conference at the White House has just finished, if you're just joining us, here's what you missed:
The transport secretary says he "can't anticipate every catastrophic failure" of the network, and that he did not \u201canticipate an outage like this\u201d.
\u201cThere will be more of them" if old legacy system is not updated, Duffy says.
Reporters have questioned how flyers can feel safe returning to the skies, with a system that Duffy says is \u201ctoo old\u201d remaining in place.
Duffy does not specifically address the question, and instead reiterates that he needs the help of Congress to build a new system – it will take time, he says, but now is the moment to act.
Duffy explains that there have been previous issues with networks and outages including when global leaders were flying into New York for the UN earlier this year, as well as issues at New Jersey's Newark airport.
"How many more times does this need to happen," he asks.
The transport secretary has been asked whether this outage will affect holiday travel.
Duffy says that it is going to \u201ctake us some time to get back to capacity\u201d, but thinks things will be \u201cback up and operational as we come in to the heat of travel during Thanksgiving\u201d.
The Thanksgiving travel period, which begins in less than two weeks, is usually one of the busiest times of the year for air travel in the US.
Duffy has added that larger plane travel is being prioritised over "smaller movements" to try and get things back up and running as quickly as possible.
Transport secretary Sean Duffy addresses reporters at the White House after all flights in the country were grounded
Mullin says a "complete overhaul" of the transportation system is needed and Duffy emphasises that point, saying this won't happen overnight but it's desperately needed.
The transport secretary cautions incidents like this one will continue to happen in the future if the transportation system isn't overhauled.
If there are any issues, Duffy says they will shut down the system. He says there wasn't a complete blackout in communications during this incident, but it was intermittent, so they decided to enact the ground stop.
Duffy explains that even though they had some communications, when you have issues and you can't immediately communicate or see planes, "that's a risk that we're unwilling to tolerate".
A reporter has asked whether the Trump Administration has seen any evidence to indicate a cyber attack.
Mullin has said they have assembled teams to investigate this, but at this stage, there is \u201cnothing that indicates\u201d it is an attack and they have \u201cnot seen any footprints\u201d of something of that nature.
\u201cWe have seen zero evidence that this is a cyber attack, or an SI attack,\u201d says Mullin.
Duffy has followed up by saying the reason for the system outage is clear – it is old, he says, with old routers, and it\u2019s a \u201cnational security risk\u201d.
Duffy, who is asking for $50b from Congress to build new air traffic control systems, is explaining how a patchwork fix overwhelmed existing systems.
He says that none of the new equipment that they've rolled out recently is to blame.
"What went down was old. It was old legacy equipment that failed," he says.
Duffy says that they were able to roll out fixes to "reduce the overloading on our switches that were able to bring the networks back online".
He says those fixes appeared to help signal that there wasn't an attack, but that it was existing equipment and network failures.
Duffy has given us a timeline as to how the incident unfolded.
He says that at 3:36 pm local time, \u201cwe experienced instability for our radar and our communications and our centres\u201d across the country. Once inconsistent data from routers started registering, the FAA issued a nation-wide ground stop.
\u201cWhat we have is an incredibly old air traffic control system,\u201d Duffy told reporters, explaining that the routers got \u201coverloaded with data\u201d, which led to \u201cinconsistency\u201d in the data received from those routers.
He went on to say that Congress needs to \u201cgive us the resources to build a state-of-the-art air traffic system\u201d, and he needs $50bn to revamp the system.
Currently the Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress.
Transportation secretary Sean Duffy confirms that the airspace has reopened.
"We've got our centres and our trachons operational right now, and so at 8:15 tonight Eastern time, we've opened up the airspace."
But flight movement depends on resources, he says.
"It's going to take us some time to unwind what's happened this afternoon."
Duffy explains the outage will cause a ripple effect, and they are looking at flights this weekend to try to get things back on track, so the problem will persist for a few days.<\/p>\n

The ground stop has been lifted, US media is reporting.
Some four hours after the halt began, flights will be resuming.
US transportation officials are continuing their news briefing from the White House and we expect they will offer more details.
We'll bring you the latest as we learn it.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin steps up to the microphone first as the briefing begins.
He quashes claims that the outage today has anything to do with the Microsoft outage many experienced yesterday.
Mullin says the administration is moving at an unprecedented pace to make sure everyone is safe and helping passengers who are stranded.
He adds that the public was never at risk, "no one was ever at risk".
\"\"<\/span><\/span>Simon Atkinson<\/strong>
Reporting from Australia<\/span>
Australia\u2019s largest international airport, Sydney, says all US-bound flights have been grounded for now.
\u201cWe are aware of the nationwide ground stop issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration and are monitoring the situation closely,\u201d a spokesperson said.
\u201cAt this stage, all US-bound flights due to depart Sydney Airport are grounded.\u201d
They added: \u201cPassengers travelling to or via the United States should check with their airline for the latest information regarding their flight.\u201d
The online Departure board is only just beginning to update – but United flights to both LA and San Francisco are listed as delayed. A Delta flight to LA is listed as having departed but flight tracking apps show it is still on the ground.
As the sun goes down across much of the US, people are still stuck in airports waiting for information on if and when their flights will depart.
People wait inside a terminal at Dulles International Airport in Virginia
People waiting on board a plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington DC
Passengers wait in line for help at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts
A traveller waits inside the terminal at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington state
People line up to try and retrieve luggage during delays and cancellations at LaGuardia airport in New York
We're expecting the US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to brief reporters shortly.
When we hear from them, we'll bring you the latest.
Multiple sources have told the BBC's US media partner, CBS, that the technical fault behind the nationwide ground stop was caused by an update to the private communications network that connects America's air traffic control system.
The network, which CBS says is operated by L3Harris, rebooted as a result of the update, and subsequently crashed.
On its website, L3Harris says it is the "premier provider" of communications systems for the world\u2019s most advanced airspaces, weapon systems and Command and Control platforms.
L3Harris has not immediately responded to the BBC's request for comment.
\"\"<\/span><\/span>Jake Horton<\/strong>
BBC Verify<\/span>
Some more comments coming in comparing the current groundstop to previous events.
During a press conference earlier about the nationwide ground stop, US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin repeatedly said that this "isn't another 9\/11".
BBC Verify has spoken to Dr Guy Gratton, an Associate Professor of Aviation and the Environment at Cranfield University, who agreed and said: "This looks like the worst since 9\/11, but clearly not on that scale."
When asked about comparable incidents, Dr Gratton pointed to a US grounding in 2023 due to a failure in the Notice to Air Missions (Notam) system.
"That lasted 1 hour and 52 minutes, delayed about 9,500 flights and cancelled about 1,300," he said.
The outage meant air traffic safety notices could no longer be published<\/a>, and flights were grounded until that system was restored.
That means the current US-wide grounding – which has been in place since 15:54 ET (20:54 GMT) – has now lasted for more than three hours, making it far longer than the 2023 event.
Copyright \u00a9 2026 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.<\/a><\/p>\n

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