Was the FAA Ground Stop a Cyberattack? What Officials Said

Rumors spread fast after the November 13, 2026 nationwide ground stop. Here is what officials said on the record.

1. Homeland Security

Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no indication of a nefarious attack and called it a telecommunications outage as of then.

2. Not ruled out

He also said a cyberattack was not yet known either way, so the investigation is still open.

3. The AI tool question

AirSpace Intel, maker of the SMART AI tool being rolled out at FAA facilities, said the ground stop was not caused by its system. Officials said they were looking at it.

4. The Microsoft outage

Mullin said the ground stop was not connected to the Microsoft outage the day before.

5. What comes next

Senators Tammy Duckworth and Maria Cantwell said they would demand answers, and the Senate Commerce Committee will review it.

Sources

ABC News (FlightAware data), Wikipedia: 2026 FAA communication outage, November 13, 2026.

FAQ

I saw a post saying it was hackers. Is that true?

Not confirmed. Officials said there was no sign of an attack so far.

When will we know the cause?

When the FAA or DOT publishes its findings. Expect updates over the coming weeks.