The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a suspension of all commercial departing flights in the United States on Friday, November 13, citing an "extraordinary circumstance" and "safety reasons." The rarely used measure caused immediate disruptions across the national air system. In an alert issued by the National Airspace System Command Center, the FAA instructed that all flights scheduled to take off remain on the ground until further notice.
International flights bound for the United States would be handled individually, case by case. Flightradar24 said on social media that the order applies to all US airports, that flights already in the air will be allowed to land, and that it is related to an FAA equipment outage. The agency did not initially disclose the specific cause of the order.
The announcement came shortly after reports of serious problems with air traffic control communications, including an outage that affected operations in the Chicago area. The measure is one of the broadest actions the FAA has taken in recent years and began generating delays at airports nationwide, while airlines and passengers awaited new instructions. The FAA did not say how long the suspension will remain in effect or give further details about the nature of the incident. The agency said it will provide more information as the investigation advances.