FAA Ground Stop 2026 Cause: What Sean Duffy Revealed – Hollywood Life

Travelers across the country were left stranded during one of the biggest air travel meltdowns in decades, and now Sean Duffy is explaining what went wrong. The Transportation Secretary faced reporters after the nationwide ground stop halted flights at every U.S. airport, and his explanation puts a spotlight on the country’s aging air traffic control network.

Keep reading for the details.

What Caused the FAA Ground Stop?

A routine equipment upgrade appears to be at the center of the chaos. A preliminary investigation found that an L3Harris contractor was switching old copper wire to fiber while replacing a router at a remote FAA location, and that router then began flooding other routers and overloaded the system, CBS News reported.

Senior government sources told the outlet that the problem was isolated to Cisco routers manufactured between 2001 and 2006. Duffy said the FAA issued the ground stop out of an abundance of caution while more than 3,500 planes were in the air.

What Did Sean Duffy Say About the FAA Ground Stop?

Duffy shared the news on X as FAA technicians began searching for the source of the problem.

“The @FAAnews issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.”

At a news conference on November 14, 2026, he made it clear that officials still don’t know whether the contractor or the equipment was to blame, in remarks shared by CBS News.

“What we’re working to determine was whether we had incompetence, meaning was it user error or installation error from L3Harris, or did they install a faulty router? We haven’t determined what the fault was.”

Duffy also renewed his push for Congress to fund an overhaul of the outdated equipment. The Trump administration raised its funding request for those upgrades to $50 billion late on November 13, 2026, the outlet noted.

Was the FAA Ground Stop a Cyberattack?

Officials say it wasn’t. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there were no indications of a cyberattack, and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford added that investigators found no evidence of anything nefarious or anything related to AI, the network reported.

Are Flights Back to Normal After the FAA Ground Stop?

The ground stop began at 3:36 p.m. EST and was lifted around 8:20 p.m. EST on November 13, 2026, which CNBC called the longest halt of U.S. flight departures since 9/11. According to FlightAware numbers in CBS News’ report, more than 9,000 flights were canceled that day, and more than 3,800 more had been canceled the following day as of the outlet’s latest update.

Duffy told reporters the system was back at full operations, though he urged travelers to check with their carriers before heading to the airport as delays continue to ripple through the system.