On a Friday evening in mid-November, a telecommunications failure at the nation's regional air traffic control centres brought American departures to a standstill for more than four hours, leaving over a million and a half travellers suspended between journeys. It is a reminder of how much of modern life rests on invisible systems: a traveller sitting in a Los Angeles terminal, a basketball squad waiting on a runway, a college team already seated on a plane that would not move. The Federal Aviation Administration lifted its halt that night, but the sky does not reset as quickly as a switch, an
FAA Ground Stop Strands 1.5 Million Air Passengers and Disrupts NBA, NHL and College Football Travel
Tens of thousands of travellers were stranded, with some passengers, such as one at Los Angeles airport, spending six hours waiting after being forced off planes.
Lack of information is what bothers me.
Mark
Four hours doesn't sound like very long. Why are airlines talking about days?
Mimi
Because the planes and crews ended up in the wrong places. Delta said repositioning aircraft and crews would take time, and 827 flights had already been diverted by early evening.
Luke
Worth noting that 827 is Cirium's count as of 7:05pm, before the stop was lifted. It's a snapshot, not a final total.
Mark
And the cancellations?
Mimi
FlightRadar24 counted more than 4,700 cancellations and 10,000 delays on Friday, plus 700 cancelled for Saturday.
Luke
Again, that's one tracker's tally. And the 1.5 million figure is the number scheduled to depart after 4pm, not a confirmed count of people actually stranded.
Mark
What about the people on the ground?
Mimi
Nicholas Erdodi spent six hours at Los Angeles airport. His complaint was lack of information, and he didn't know if his rebooked flight would go.
Mark
Sports teams were hit too.
Mimi
Texas had boarded, Washington's buses had just reached the airport, and the Big 12 is weighing schedule changes.
Luke
Duffy says things will be normal by Thanksgiving, less than two weeks away. That's a forecast. The source says nothing here about how the outage is being fixed or what exactly caused it beyond a telecommunications failure.
Der Puls
- A telecom outage at 22 regional air traffic control centres froze US departures, leaving passengers stuck in terminals with no clear answers.
- More than 4,700 flights were cancelled and 10,000 delayed, while at least 827 were diverted, and 700 more cancellations were already booked for Saturday.
- Sports teams from the NBA, NHL and college football found themselves grounded hours before games, with some considering 7-hour bus rides to make kickoff.
- Airlines are scrambling to restart operations, but repositioning aircraft and crews will take days, and Transportation Secretary Duffy is aiming for normal service by Thanksgiving.
On a Friday evening in mid-November, a telecommunications failure at the nation's regional air traffic control centres brought American departures to a standstill for more than four hours, leaving over a million and a half travellers suspended between journeys. It is a reminder of how much of modern life rests on invisible systems: a traveller sitting in a Los Angeles terminal, a basketball squad waiting on a runway, a college team already seated on a plane that would not move. The Federal Aviation Administration lifted its halt that night, but the sky does not reset as quickly as a switch, and carriers now face the slower work of returning planes and crews to where they belong. Whether the system is whole again by the Thanksgiving rush will show how well a connected country recovers from a single point of failure.
Nicholas Erdodi had flown in from New Zealand for a conference in Chicago, and on Friday evening he found himself in Los Angeles, six hours into an unplanned wait after being forced off his plane. What he remembered most was the silence. He had been rebooked, but no one could tell him whether the next flight would actually leave.
He was one of more than 1.5 million air passengers caught when a telecommunications outage struck the country's 22 regional air traffic control centres. The Federal Aviation Administration halted departures for more than four hours before lifting the ground stop late Friday night. The numbers that followed were vast: thousands of cancellations, thousands of delays, and hundreds of diversions rippling outward across the network.
The disruption also landed on a heavy sports weekend. NBA and NHL teams were stranded on tarmacs and in transit, and college squads sat waiting on planes that would not move. The Texas Longhorns had already boarded when they were grounded, and a spokesman could only say the team was waiting to see when it might leave. A bus alternative to Baton Rouge would have taken around seven hours.
Airlines began restarting service with careful warnings. Delta, United, JetBlue and others promised gradual recovery, but aircraft and crews must first return to where they are needed. Beyond the US, airports in Mexico City and Toronto felt the effects as well. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged that tens of thousands had been stranded and expressed hope that normal operations would return by the Thanksgiving rush, though the path back is expected to take days.
Nicholas Erdodi had flown in from New Zealand for a conference in Chicago. On Friday evening he was in Los Angeles, six hours into a stay at the airport after being forced off his plane. He told Al Jazeera's John Hendren that the hardest part was the silence: nobody there could tell him what to do. He had been rebooked, he said, but he did not know whether his next flight would actually leave.
He was one of more than 1.5 million air passengers caught up in a nationwide halt to departing flights in the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration lifted its ground stop at 8:15pm Eastern time on Friday, which was 01:15 GMT on Saturday, after more than four hours. The cause was a telecommunications outage that affected the country's 22 regional air traffic control centres.
The numbers give a sense of the scale. The aviation analytics firm Cirium said about 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers were scheduled to leave US airports after 4pm Eastern. By 7:05pm, at least 827 flights had been diverted. FlightRadar24 counted more than 4,700 cancellations and 10,000 delays on Friday, with 700 flights already cancelled for Saturday. At the lowest point of the stoppage, only 336 flights worldwide were in the air bound for the US, the service reported on X.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it would "take us some time" to restore capacity and that there would be "some makeup to do." He acknowledged that tens of thousands of travellers had been stranded, and said he expected operations to be back to normal for the Thanksgiving rush, which begins in less than two weeks.
The stoppage landed on a heavy sports weekend. The Associated Press reported that NBA, NHL and college teams were stranded, while NFL teams wondered whether they could travel in time for their games. The Nets were among five NBA teams due to fly Friday for Saturday games, and 14 NHL games were set for Saturday. The San Jose Sharks were left waiting to fly to Utah, while the Florida Panthers had reached St Louis before the stoppage.
In college football, the Texas Longhorns had boarded their plane when it was grounded. "We are grounded and waiting to see when we can leave," a team spokesman said. If they had to take a bus to Baton Rouge, the trip for Saturday's 6:30pm kickoff would take about seven hours. The Washington Post reported that the Washington Huskies' buses, carrying almost 200 people, had just reached the airport when the order came. The Big 12 said it was evaluating possible changes to Saturday's schedule, and the Southeastern Conference said it was "aware" of the impact on team travel.
Airlines began restarting, with warnings about the pace. Delta said it was "safely resuming operations" and offering flexible rebooking, but cautioned that repositioning aircraft and crews would take time. United said it was resuming a number of Friday night flights. JetBlue planned to restart Saturday morning. Air Canada said operations would return gradually, with disruption likely Saturday, and Aeromexico was working to resume service.
The effects reached beyond US borders. Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport said about 70 flights scheduled for Friday could be affected. Toronto Pearson said flights that did not cross US airspace were running as normal, and that it had added staff to help affected passengers.
What to watch now is how quickly crews and aircraft get back to where they are meant to be. Carriers expect disruption to last days, and Duffy's target is a normal system by Thanksgiving.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
It will take us some time to restore capacity, and we're going to have some makeup to do.— Sean Duffy, US Transportation Secretary
The challenge is you cannot ask anyone here what to do. Lack of information is what bothers me.— Nicholas Erdodi, stranded passenger at Los Angeles airport
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