U.S. Ground Stop: What We Know About the FAA Router Failure

A router problem in the Federal Aviation Administration's communications network triggered the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, grounding flights across the United States on Nov. 13 and leaving travelers stranded into the weekend, according to CBS News. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday that normal operations had resumed, but airlines are still rebooking passengers and repositioning planes and crews.

The FAA ordered the stoppage at 3:36 p.m. EST Friday while approximately 3,500 flights were in the air, and lifted it around 8:20 p.m. EST. All airborne aircraft landed safely, officials said.

What officials have confirmed

The cause was in the network, not the aircraft. Duffy said a preliminary investigation found that a contractor from L3Harris was working at a remote FAA location, switching old copper wire to fiber while replacing a router. The router being switched began flooding other routers, overloading the system, he said.
The overload was severe. Duffy said there were 1,000 attempts to log on every four to five seconds.
It spread. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the router flooded the system for 45 minutes, the agency could not determine the cause of the instability, and it then spread to 17 facilities. He said the ground stop was issued out of an abundance of caution and that he stands behind the decision.
The upgrade was routine. Bedford described the wiring update as maintenance the agency has worked on for years, with about 70% of the system already moved from copper to fiber.
Officials say it was not an attack. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Friday there were no indications of a cyberattack. Duffy said he does not believe it was one, and Bedford said there was zero evidence of anything nefarious or anything AI-related.

What is reported but not confirmed

Senior government sources told CBS News on Friday that the problem was isolated to specific hardware: Cisco 600 series routers manufactured between 2001 and 2006. The sources were not named, and the FAA has not publicly detailed the equipment in the accounts reviewed here.

Flight counts also differ by outlet. CBS News, citing FlightAware, reported that about 9,159 flights were canceled and 7,190 delayed on Friday. NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth reported that more than 7,000 flights were canceled nationwide. The reports do not explain the gap.

What is still unknown

Duffy said the FAA is working to determine whether the issue was human error or whether a faulty router was installed. He also said L3Harris owned the system and criticized contractors who, in his words, take government money and provide poor service. L3Harris said it is supporting the FAA's investigation and takes the ground stop and its impact seriously, adding that it has been modernizing the communications infrastructure for the National Airspace System in close coordination with the agency.

What this means for travelers

The disruption did not end when the ground stop did. FlightAware counted more than 5,000 flights canceled Saturday and around 5,300 delayed, CBS News reported. Duffy said travelers should expect some delays and cancellations as carriers reschedule flights and reposition aircraft and crews.

At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, about 300 flights had been canceled as of 9 a.m. Saturday, NBC 5 reported. Many travelers slept in the terminal. Passenger Erica Rutherford, who was connecting toward Los Angeles and then Sydney, said she was told American Airlines could not provide a hotel room because the disruption was not considered an act of God, such as weather. That left her to pay for her own lodging, and her rebooked flight does not leave until Sunday. American Airlines said Friday night it was focused on operating as many remaining flights as possible while positioning for a strong recovery.

The FAA expected the system to be back on schedule by the end of Sunday, Nov. 15, NBC 5 reported, though an expert said major hubs such as DFW could recover sooner. Duffy told reporters Saturday, “We are back at full operations.”

The funding fight that followed

Duffy said Congress provided $12.5 billion toward modernizing air traffic control, which he called a partial payment. The Trump administration raised its request for air traffic control funding to $30 billion late Friday, CBS News reported.

Reps. Rick Larsen and Andre Carson, the top Democrats on the House transportation committee and its aviation subcommittee, said FAA and Department of Transportation staff will brief the committees on Monday about the added request. In a joint statement, they said the administration has used only $1 billion of the $12.5 billion and pledged to hold it accountable. Duffy said some in Congress were unsure the money would be spent well.

Around Prague, based on reporting by CBS News, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Cover photo: Noah Wulf / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped

Share: Telegram WhatsApp