US Transportation Secretary Blames Outdated Hardware for Nationwide Flight Ground Stop

WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (OPA) — A nationwide ground stop halted all US flight departures on Friday afternoon following a temporary telecommunications outage at regional air traffic control centers. Federal Aviation Administration officials cited extraordinary circumstances for safety reasons, forcing thousands of aircraft to remain grounded as the chaos rippled through major airports nationwide.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters at a White House press briefing that old hardware failure triggered the system breakdown. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin added that integrating new technology into the aging air traffic control network overwhelmed the system. Mullin estimated a complete modernization overhaul would cost $50 billion.

Flight data showed the disruption stranded thousands of passengers, with delays exceeding 14,000 flights and 5,000 cancellations recorded by evening. International departures resumed on a case-by-case basis after 5 p.m. Eastern, while domestic departures remained restricted for hours as air traffic controllers worked to clear the massive backlog of planes.

President Donald Trump told Fox News that the incident did not stem from a cyberattack, pointing instead to broken infrastructure that requires funding upgrades. Federal officials confirmed that the ground stop was officially lifted shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern, though aviation authorities warned it would take time for normal scheduling to resume.