November 14, 2026.   Ground Stop Galore.

On Friday afternoon, the FAA ordered a halt to all scheduled departures nationwide.

The stop remained in place for about four hours, resulting in thousands of cancellations and an ongoing cascade of delays. The situation is still chaotic as we move into the weekend. Passengers and crews remain stranded as carriers scramble to restore their timetables.

As to what caused this mess, there’s not much I can tell you. I’m as mystified as anyone else. Something about a “router,” which sounds comical.

Apparently it was the higher-altitude sectors that were most impacted. Middle-altitude sectors and control towers, which organize traffic on and around airports, remained operational.

My first thought was hacking. Russia? Iran? Canada? FAA spokespeople have downplayed this possibility but haven’t ruled it out. Either way, it’s startling that a single point of failure can have such widespread effects.

Our ATC infrastructure relies on decades-old analog equipment that’s increasingly susceptible to breakdowns. Cue all the chatter about funding and modernization. Upgrades are long overdue, though even a state-of-the-art system wouldn’t be impervious to hacking, jamming, etc.

I’m scheduled to work a flight to Lisbon later this evening. We’ll see how it goes; the other pilots on my trip are in other parts of the country, trying to make their way here.

Photo by Clement Proust, courtesy of Unsplash.