What happened: the FAA ground stop of Friday, Nov. 13, 2026
- Around 4 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 13, the FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop on departing flights, citing a telecommunications outage affecting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers. Flights already in the air continued to their destinations. (CNBC)
- Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was “no indication as of yet” of anything nefarious, though officials said the investigation was at an early stage. (NBC News)
- The stop was partly eased in the early evening: the FAA said flights would be allowed to depart as en route facilities recover, and San Francisco cleared Pacific-bound departures. (CNBC, NBC News)
- The FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop at 8:33 p.m. ET Friday. A source told NBC News that clearing the backlog would take time because crews and planes were out of position, so expect knock-on delays. (NBC News)
- By 7:30 p.m. ET, FlightAware counted more than 10,000 U.S. flight delays and more than 4,200 cancellations. (NBC News)
Last checked 8:45 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. More: ABC7 live updates.
Flight delay memes took over the internet on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, when the FAA grounded departing flights across the entire country. A communications outage at air traffic control centers stopped departures around 4 p.m. ET, right as the Friday rush began, and thousands of travelers ended up camped at gates, refreshing airline apps and quietly accepting whatever the airport charges for a sandwich. It also landed on Friday the 13th, one day after the two-day Microsoft outage that gave us our Outlook down memes. First the email, now the planes. Here are 25 of our own flight delay memes for this ground stop and every one after it, from the departures board to the gate agent’s face to the Thanksgiving travel dread.
Is my flight still grounded?
The nationwide ground stop was lifted at 8:33 p.m. ET Friday, but individual flights can stay delayed or canceled while airlines catch up.
- Check the FAA’s National Airspace System status page for active ground stops and airport delays.
- Your airline’s app is usually the fastest source for your own flight: new departure times, gate changes and rebooking options often show up there before the gate announcement.
- Turn on text or push alerts for your flight, and check the app for rebooking or refund options before you join the line at the desk.
Ground stop memes
The FAA picked Friday the 13th, one day after Microsoft finally fixed Outlook. The jokes wrote themselves.
1. The departures board on Friday the 13th
Every single row, the same word. Somewhere a horror director is taking notes.
2. Friday the 13th bad luck checklist
We were braced for black cats. Nobody warned us about the entire national airspace.
3. Friday the 13th had a plan
Lisa is right, as usual. The scariest thing in America on Friday was a wall of red letters.
4. First Outlook, now the planes
First Outlook, now the planes. If you missed round one, our Outlook down memes covered both days of it.
5. Outlook is back, the airports are not
Two days without email, then two hours later a nationwide ground stop. The universe really did not want us to have a normal week.
6. Survived the email outage for this
We even made memes for when Outlook came back. That celebration lasted roughly one afternoon.
7. Never book against the calendar
Never mock the calendar. The calendar has friends in air traffic control.
Airport delay memes
Hour one is an adventure. Hour four is a lifestyle. These airport delay memes are for everyone who refreshed the airline app until their thumb gave out.
8. The airline app, a love story
Each notification more hopeful than the last, until the app quietly stopped guessing.
9. The airline app at 3:58 p.m.
It was technically true for two more minutes.
10. Hour three at the gate
“Shortly” is doing a lot of heavy lifting at airports tonight.
11. Airport food prices during a ground stop
No prices listed, because nobody at the gate wants to know.
12. Departure time: TBD
The status column just says “see agent.” The agent also says “see agent.”
13. The gate change shuffle
A good seat near an outlet is the only real estate that matters in a terminal.
14. Rebooked into Sunday
Sunday at 6:05 a.m. is not a flight. It is a hostage situation with pretzels.
15. The airport hotel exit
At some point the bravest thing you can do at an airport is leave it.
If the terminal is starting to feel like a zoo, these bizarre airport photos prove it has always been one.
Gate agent and pilot memes
Spare a thought for the crews and gate agents, who were just as stuck as the passengers and had to answer the same question 300 times.
16. When the whole gate stands up
Be nice to gate agents. They found out about the ground stop roughly when you did.
17. The gate agent's face, a timeline
From “Boarding group one!” to “I live here now” in about five hours.
18. Just give the gate agent five minutes
Asking the same question in a new voice does not change the FAA’s answer.
19. The pilot says "Folks…" again
“Folks” is the most suspenseful word in American aviation. The crew is just as stuck as we are.
20. Grandpa versus the departures board
He has opinions about the departures board, and he will share all of them.
Thanksgiving travel memes
Thanksgiving is Nov. 26, which gives everyone less than two weeks to decide whether they trust airports again.
21. Thanksgiving travel, rescheduled
Patrick has a point. Nobody said Thanksgiving had to start at an airport.
22. Drivers vs. flyers this Thanksgiving
Road trip people have never looked so smart.
23. Rethinking the Thanksgiving flight
Mom, about the turkey. Have you heard of video calls?
24. Thanksgiving travel forecast
Pack patience, phone chargers and at least one emergency granola bar.
25. The road trip has entered the chat
The airport cannot ground your minivan.
The biggest U.S. flight disruptions in recent years
- Dec. 21–30, 2022: the Southwest holiday meltdown. Southwest Airlines canceled more than 15,000 flights at the peak of holiday travel. (Wikipedia)
- Jan. 11, 2023: the FAA NOTAM outage. The FAA paused all departures nationwide for about 90 minutes in the morning after its pilot-alert system failed. A damaged database file was blamed, and the FAA said there was no evidence of a cyberattack. (Wikipedia)
- July 19, 2024: the CrowdStrike outage. A faulty security software update knocked out about 8.5 million Windows computers worldwide, and airlines were among the hardest hit. (Wikipedia)
- Nov. 13, 2026: the Friday the 13th ground stop. A communications outage affecting air traffic control centers led the FAA to stop departing flights nationwide around 4 p.m. ET. (CNBC)
More outage memes
This week has been rough on anything with a server. Catch up with the memes from when Outlook finally came back, the original Microsoft outage memes and our Teams down memes.
Flight delay FAQ
Why were all flights grounded?
The FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop on departing flights around 4 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, citing a telecommunications outage affecting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the facilities that guide high-altitude flights. Officials said the cause was still being investigated. (CNBC)
Is the FAA ground stop over?
Yes. The FAA said “the national ground stop has been lifted” at 8:33 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. Delays and cancellations can linger while airlines get crews and planes back into position, so check your airline’s app and the FAA’s National Airspace System status page before you head to the airport. (NBC News)
Was it a cyberattack?
Officials said there was no sign of one. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin first said there was “no indication as of yet” of anything nefarious, and after the stop was lifted he said there had been no cyberattack so far. (NBC News)
What is a ground stop?
A ground stop is an FAA order that keeps flights on the ground at their departure airports until a problem is fixed, while planes already in the air keep flying. Most ground stops cover a single airport, often because of weather. Nationwide stops for all departures are extremely rare; the previous one was the January 2023 NOTAM outage.