American Airlines said its flight schedule would likely remain disrupted after the FAA suspended departures nationwide. (Foto: Instagram)
American Airlines said Friday, Nov. 13, that its flight schedule would likely remain disrupted for the rest of the day after departures were suspended nationwide in the United States. The airline said the extent of the changes would depend on how long the Federal Aviation Administration’s suspension of ground operations lasted.
The FAA ordered the pause Friday afternoon, citing “security reasons” and “extraordinary circumstances.” American Airlines said flights already in progress could continue to their destinations, but warned that its schedule would be affected while departures remained halted.
Earlier Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a communications problem affecting all of the country’s air traffic control centers had prompted the nationwide suspension. Later, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication the United States had been hit by a cyberattack.
“There is no indication or reason to believe this represents a threat to the United States at this time,” Mullin told reporters at the White House. He described the incident as a telecommunications failure and said there was no indication it was a hostile attack or another Sept. 11.
The most recent nationwide suspension of U.S. departures occurred in January 2023, after a failure in the system used to notify pilots. Before that, the measure was imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
With U.S. air traffic disrupted, about 3,100 aircraft were in the air awaiting authorization to land, according to Flight Radar. International flights arriving in the country were not automatically covered by the restriction; the FAA said each operation would be evaluated individually based on safety conditions.
