What is known about the ban on aircraft taking off in the USA

It was the longest outage of US flight operations in decades. There was a ban on starting for four hours. Why - and with what consequences? Could something similar happen in Germany? An overview.

FAQ Air traffic in the USA What is known about the aviation mishap As of: November 14th, 2026 • 5:44 p.m

It was the longest outage of US flight operations in decades. There was a ban on starting for four hours. Why - and with what consequences? Could something similar happen in Germany? An overview.

At the start of the weekend, domestic flights were temporarily not permitted in the USA on Friday. The US aviation regulator unexpectedly imposed a nationwide take-off ban. However, at least some overseas planes were allowed to take off, according to media and eyewitnesses.

Machines that were still in the air at the time of the stop were gradually able to land. Around four hours later, at 2:15 a.m. German time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) finally gave the all-clear and lifted the ban.

It was the third nationwide stop of air travel in the United States. For the first time, planes remained grounded after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The FAA last resorted to this radical measure in January 2023. At that time, the trigger was a failure in the system through which messages are transmitted to pilots.

Flight stop lifted in the USA - outdated communication technology Cause of standstill Anina Pommerenke, ARD-aktuell, tagesschau24, November 14th, 2026 • 9:00 a.m. What was the reason for the take-off ban this time? The FAA described the problem on Online Service X as a "temporary telecommunications outage." The disruption affects all air traffic control centers. The authority emphasized that the action was taken “out of pure caution”. Later, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the reasoning at a joint press conference at the White House.

The system has now been restored to “full functionality,” according to the FAA.

The authority initially did not provide any information about the causes of the communication disruption. According to Mullin, there was no evidence of a "malicious attack" or threat. "From what we know, it was not a cyberattack," he emphasized. But nothing can be ruled out at this point. Mullin ruled out any connection to the global Microsoft breakdown shortly before.

Duffy also didn't want to know anything about the government making a mistake. It was old technology that failed, not the new one. "We have an incredibly outdated air traffic control system. The routers were overloaded. There were inconsistencies in the data. That's why we shut down the system," said Duffy.

The core of the problem was that an old analog system and a new digital system were operated side by side. Mullin said Duffy and the FAA intervened in the system to correct errors. This brought the old system to its knees. "That's why patchwork doesn't work."

Air traffic control suffers from disruptions in technology and communication, a lack of air traffic controllers and outdated infrastructure. Many FAA systems have been in use for decades. The infrastructure behind the US aviation system is described as a patchwork that has grown over decades.

Congress approved $12.5 billion last year to begin modernizing the FAA's communications system. The agency and the White House also requested $30.1 billion from Congress to address further deficiencies. At the beginning of November, Duffy announced that computer systems that date back to the 1980s will be phased out by the end of 2028. After the breakdown, Duffy called for Congress to release the requested additional $30.1 billion to complete the modernization of air traffic control.

President Donald Trump's government has consistently blamed the policies of his predecessor, Joe Biden, for problems in US aviation. At the beginning of last year, Trump complained about the negative effects of diversity programs in air traffic control.

Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said air traffic controllers were no longer able to speak reliably to pilots. "If you don't have that option, whether because the old wiring is simply worn out or for whatever reason, you have to keep planes on the ground," said a former pilot for US airline United Airlines.

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The unusual arrangement caused nationwide chaos at US airports. According to aviation consultant Andrew Charlton, around a quarter of the approximately 45,000 daily flights in the USA have been canceled. Tens of thousands of passengers were put to the test of patience, and long queues formed at important hubs in the USA.

Demand for rental cars, taxis and hotels exploded in many cities. Shares in the rental car provider Hertz therefore skyrocketed in value.

Transport Minister Duffy apologized for the breakdown at a press conference. But it will probably take some time before traffic returns to normal. Since a number of aircraft and crews are now missing where they would have been needed for further flights as planned, the disruptions in the USA and other countries will continue for a longer period of time. The British aviation authority CAA warned of possible further disruptions to air traffic.

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All flights from Europe to the United States were temporarily suspended overnight. However, due to the ban on night flights in many places, the immediate consequences remained minor.

Early in the morning, the European aviation safety authority Eurocontrol removed the notice about the take-off ban from its website and called on airlines to issue delay notices for aircraft that cannot initially take off.

Three flights were diverted back to Germany in the evening after taking off from Frankfurt. At Germany's largest airport, only four flights to the USA planned for today have been canceled, a spokeswoman said, according to the dpa news agency. The planes could not have flown from the USA to Frankfurt on Friday and were therefore not available as planned. Today the flight schedule could be “a little tighter,” said the spokeswoman.

The direct consequences also remained manageable at Munich Airport. Two flights from the USA did not arrive, which is why three connections from Munich to Charlotte and Houston planned for today had to be canceled and delays in further flight operations are to be expected, an airport spokesman said, according to dpa. Further changes are still possible, also because there are sometimes delays in arriving flights from the USA.

According to a spokeswoman for the federally owned German Air Traffic Control (DFS), according to the dpa news agency, to the best of her knowledge, there has never been a breakdown of a similar magnitude in German or European air traffic. The events in the USA showed “how important it is to have a robust and redundant technical infrastructure, which we are fortunate to have here in Germany”.

However, neither the systems nor the airspace structures could be compared with each other. "There are always comparisons between the USA and Europe, but this comparison is actually not possible." Only when the investigations into the current breakdown have been completely completed will it be possible to say "whether this is something that can be replicated in Germany."

In principle, technical errors could also occur in Germany, said the dpa spokeswoman - there is "no 100% security". However, DFS operates its safety-critical systems “with very extensive redundancies.” Many important systems exist multiple times. "And in the event that system malfunctions occur, there are established processes that ensure that we do not have to bring all air traffic to a standstill. You can then "control it in air traffic control." During such phases, less air traffic would be processed and there could be delays.

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Under the umbrella of Eurocontrol (European Organization for the Safety of Aviation), work and research is constantly being carried out to ensure that local systems correspond better and are more compatible with each other, explained the DFS spokeswoman. "In this sense, we already work very closely and very closely together. And we also have systems that work with each other across borders." Work is also underway on further digitization and automation.

With information from Nina Barth, ARD Washington