The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted on Friday at 8:15 p.m. (Eastern Time), the total shutdown of U.S. airspace after more than four and a half hours of a halt that left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded and caused the cancellation of nearly 5,000 domestic flights nationwide.
The Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, appeared together in the White House press room to explain what happened, as reported by El País and ABC News in their live coverage of the incident.
Duffy noted that at 3:36 p.m., instability was detected in the radars and communications of air traffic control centers across the country. The cause was a technologically outdated system: "Our telecommunications are analog. Our switches and routers were overloaded while processing data and ceased to function." In light of the "inconsistency" in the information provided by those devices, the authorities decided to shut down the system completely.
Mullin ruled out terrorism or a cyberattack, although he did not completely dismiss the possibility: “It doesn’t seem to be that way. It seems to have been a mechanical issue. However, we are still investigating, so we won’t rule it out.” The official emphasized that “the public was never in any danger” and confirmed that President Donald Trump was informed and that the government operated in full crisis response mode.
The Secretary of Homeland Security also addressed comparisons to the September 11 attacks of 2001: «This is not another 9/11 — I simply cannot stress this enough. People are making that assumption. This is a disruption in telecommunications. This is very different.» The Miami airport has asked travelers for patience and recommended not going to the terminals without first confirming the flight status with the airline.
In South Florida, Miami International Airport recorded 389 delays and 17 cancellations, while Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood experienced 309 delays and 19 cancellations. Nationally, FlightAware counted approximately 7,000 flights delayed or canceled in total. Eurocontrol also suspended, at the request of the FAA, all flights to U.S. airports departing from its member states.
The incident highlighted the deterioration of the country's air infrastructure. Mullin warned that a complete overhaul of the system would cost around $50 billion and was emphatic: "Band-aids don't work. We need a comprehensive system; we require someone to develop the system in its entirety." A report from the Government Accountability Office published in September 2026 had already warned that 51 of the 138 FAA systems evaluated were unsustainable, with another 54 potentially unsustainable.
This was only the third national ground stop in the history of American aviation: the first occurred on September 11, 2001, and the second in January 2023, when the collapse of the NOTAM system caused nearly 9,000 delays in less than two hours.
For Cubans and Cuban Americans, the air chaos in the United States added to a crisis of its own in Cuba: ten airports on the island have maintained notices of unavailability of Jet A-1 fuel until December 1, 2026, with over 1,700 canceled flights accumulated throughout the year and at least 11 airlines that have suspended or reduced operations to the island.
Duffy acknowledged that the return to normalcy will not be immediate and expressed confidence that the system will be operational for the Thanksgiving travel season: "We hope to see a much better flow tomorrow."
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