FAA Ground Stop Strands UW Football Team Before 1:15 p.m. Michigan State Game

Q: What massive telecom failure forced the FAA to halt all US flights, leaving thousands of travelers and major sports teams completely stranded?

A nationwide telecommunications outage affecting the FAA’s air traffic control communications network forced the ground stop. Federal officials said the failure disrupted communications at all 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the facilities that manage planes flying en route between airports. The FAA described it as a “temporary telecommunications outage” and a “nationwide comms failure,” prompting the agency to halt departures across the country out of safety concerns. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the issue was a communications problem impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers, while Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication at that stage of a “nefarious attack,” calling it a telecommunications outage. Reports also said the disruption involved communications and radar problems, though investigators were still working to determine the root cause. The outage triggered one of the rarest actions in U.S. aviation: a nationwide ground stop, the first since the 2023 NOTAM-system breakdown and only the second such broad halt since Sept. 11, 2001. It left thousands of passengers stranded and disrupted travel plans for college and professional sports teams, including Washington football.

3 articles · Updated · KOMO News · Nov 13

UW’s football team deplaned at Boeing Field after failing to depart on its scheduled 1:15 p.m. Friday flight to Michigan, leaving the Huskies stuck in Seattle.
A nationwide FAA ground stop halted all flights, and the university said the team returned to campus to wait for more information.
Washington is still scheduled to play Michigan State at 1:15 p.m. Saturday, but the team has no alternate travel plans in place.
The disruption leaves less than 24 hours to get the Huskies to East Lansing for the road game.