US flight shutdown exposes deepening air traffic network crisis
What happened
US airlines cancelled more than 2,000 flights on Saturday as they worked to recover from a nationwide ground stop that halted departures across the country, France 24 reported.
Trump administration officials said new technology added to the air traffic control system overloaded outdated equipment, causing patchy communications and radar gaps, with no evidence of foul play.
Federal Aviation Administration chief Bryan Bedford said flights should return to normal by the end of Sunday, though Saturday would still bring delays and cancellations.
Flightradar24 counted about 3,100 aircraft already in the air heading to US airports when the stop was announced, according to To Vima.
“We use 1980s little copper lines. It's an old system that went down, and went down everywhere. It got overloaded.”
France 24
Summary written by AI from 2 independent sources (To Vima, France 24) and checked automatically against them for copied text and numbers that are not in the sources. How we work
Open on the live globe →Who reported it
- 2026-11-13 20:45 UTCTo Vima · tovima.com ↗
- 2026-11-13 21:23 UTCGlobal News · globalnews.ca ↗
- 2026-11-13 21:33 UTCSCMP · scmp.com ↗
- 2026-11-13 23:29 UTCJapan Times · japantimes.co.jp ↗
- 2026-11-14 00:13 UTCTimes of Israel · timesofisrael.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 00:53 UTCMercoPress · en.mercopress.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 01:10 UTCRappler via Reuters · rappler.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 01:36 UTCKorea Herald · koreaherald.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 01:41 UTCDW · dw.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 01:47 UTCBBC · bbc.co.uk ↗
- 2026-11-14 01:53 UTCThe Verge · theverge.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 03:56 UTCCNA · channelnewsasia.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 05:00 UTCKathmandu Post via Reuters · kathmandupost.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 05:21 UTCMyJoyOnline · myjoyonline.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 05:53 UTCFBC News · fbcnews.com.fj ↗
- 2026-11-14 06:29 UTCThe Hindu · thehindu.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 06:50 UTCTimesLIVE via Reuters · timeslive.co.za ↗
- 2026-11-14 06:56 UTCEuronews · euronews.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 07:30 UTCBangkok Post · bangkokpost.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 09:26 UTCCNBC · cnbc.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 09:34 UTCAfricanews · africanews.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 10:14 UTCFrance 24 · france24.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 11:27 UTCMiddle East Eye · middleeasteye.net ↗
- 2026-11-14 12:56 UTCTimes of India · timesofindia.indiatimes.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 14:04 UTCMarketWatch · marketwatch.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 15:03 UTCGuardian · theguardian.com ↗
- 2026-11-14 18:02 UTCAl Jazeera · aljazeera.com ↗
More from United States of America
- Polls show Trump's party could lose control of Congress but they may be wrong 47 sources
- Treasury yields fall as investors crowd into bonds for safety amid election stock sell-off 45 sources
- Nvidia stock edges higher as pressure mounts following alleged China spy links 35 sources
- Share price tumbles as Nvidia investigates CEO and 'foreign intelligence' 33 sources
- Australia's cybersecurity chief looking into Microsoft outage 32 sources
- Global outage hits Microsoft's Outlook 31 sources
- US midterm elections 2026 live: Democrats exceed 250 House seats as blue wave sweeping Congress grows 30 sources
- Trump's midterm defeat gives the Gulf a chance to escape America's forever wars 27 sources