The United States blocked all decollies from the country’s airports in the afternoon of today, Friday 13 November, after a communication problem affected the national air traffic control system. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the federal agency that regulates American civil aviation, has arranged a national ground stop, ordering aircraft leaving to stay on the ground until new communications. The measure was adopted for security reasons and caused delays and cancellations throughout the country.
The block is not equivalent to the complete closure of the American airspace: the planes that were already in flight at the time of the order can continue towards the respective destinations and land. For international direct links in the United States, however, the FAA has planned a case-by-case management. Some flights may then be allowed to continue the journey, while others may stay at departure airports or have to change their route.
The order was issued around 15:54 on the eastern coast of the United States, 21:54 in Italy. In the measure, the FAA has motivated the suspension with extraordinary circumstances and security reasons, without initially indicating a precise technical cause. Shortly after, the American secretary to the Transports, Sean Duffy, explained that the problem was about the communications of the regional air traffic control centers and that the technicians of the agency were working to identify its origin.
In the United States, 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers operate, which run aircraft during most of the route between the airport and the other. In the hours preceding the block, radio frequencies used by controllers were reported to communicate with pilots. When these communications are not sufficiently reliable, you cannot maintain the normal flow of departures without increasing the security risks.
For this reason FAA has stopped the new decollies, leaving the planes already on the road to the destination airports. Unlike what happened after the attacks of 11 September 2001, it was not ordered to the aircraft in flight to reach the nearest airport immediately. The management of arrivals continued, although with possible restrictions related to the conditions of the individual control centres.
The authorities are trying to figure out what caused the malfunction. The FBI is considering all possible hypotheses, also examining the possibility that a software update has caused the interruption of communication. FAA sources cited by CNN also reported that, at the moment, there were no elements that indicate a computer attack.
In the same hours the National Weather Service, the federal agency responsible for weather forecasts, reported problems with communications and internet connection: the audits will have to clarify whether it was independent malfunctions or problems related to shared infrastructure.
The consequences on flights were immediate. According to the data of the FlightAware monitoring service reported by the press agencies, over the day nearly 7,000 connections had already accumulated delays or had been deleted. The data includes the disservices recorded altogether in American airports and does not allow to attribute them all with certainty to the failure of the FAA.
At the time of the block, according to Flightradar24 data, more than 4,000 aircraft were headed to US airports. Most continued to follow the planned routes, while the companies began to reorganize the departures. United Airlines reported that their international flights had already taken off could continue towards the destination, while national flights would remain on the ground until new instructions.
The measure also affects the three main airports in the New York area: John F. Kennedy, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia. The repercussions can extend to flights between Italy and the United States, especially to the transatlantic connections that still have to leave. A direct flight to New York is not necessarily cancelled, but may be delayed, held in the airport of origin or received different instructions during the trip.
Who should fly in the next few hours can check the general traffic conditions through the official National Airspace System Status portal, updated by the FAA with information on departure suspensions, delays and restrictions in individual airports. The agency also publishes a daily report on air traffic. In order to know the actual status of your connection, it is necessary to consult the airline, because the general information of the FAA does not necessarily indicate changes to the individual flights.
A national decolli block is a rare event in the United States. The last precedent dates back to 11 January 2023, when a failure to the NOTEM system, used to transmit to the pilots important information for safety, forced the FAA to suspend the departures for about 90 minutes. Before that episode, a national measure had been adopted after the attacks of 11 September 2001.
The new incident arrives as the American government is trying to modernize the air traffic control system, which still uses equipment and communication infrastructure dating back several decades ago. In 2025, Congress approved funding for $12.5 billion for network renewal. Part of the interventions is about replacing old copper cables with fiber optic connections and updating of radio equipment. The administration also asked Congress for another $30.1 billion to complete the program.
Even after revoking the block, the accumulated delays could continue to affect subsequent flights and coincidences.
L’articolo Air traffic blocked in the United States for communication failure proviene da IlNewyorkese.
