Live The DHS secretary said there were no indications of a cyberattack. Last Updated: November 13, 2026, 9:25 PM EST The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a rare nationwide ground stop for all airports Friday -- a more than four-hour disruption that snarled travel from coast to coast. At a White House news conference Friday night, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed old technology that became overloaded and called on Congress to provide billions more in funding to modernize critical equipment, calling the situation an "emergency." Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters there was no indication the incident stemmed from a cyberattack, but that officials were still investigating.
Nearly 5,000 flights were canceled amid the issue. "I believe that it's going to take us some time to get back to capacity," Duffy said when asked how long air travelers should delays and cancellations to continue. Key Headlines 16 minutes ago 25 minutes ago 40 minutes ago 53 minutes ago 1 hour and 4 minutes ago 1 hour and 17 minutes ago Here's how the news is developing. 4 minutes ago United says its resuming operations Following the lifting of the ground stop, United Airlines said it is "resuming operations, including some planned Friday night flights." 16 minutes ago Duffy makes plea for funding: 'This is an emergency' Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called for funding from Congress to upgrade what he called an "incredibly old air traffic control system" in the wake of Friday's nationwide ground stop.
"This is an emergency," he told reporters. "I want Congress to give us emergency funding. This is bipartisan.
This is American. I want $50 billion." Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin speak during a news conference in the James Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Nov. 13, 2026. Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters In describing Friday's issue, Duffy pointed to "old switches, old routers." "We use 1980s little copper lines.
It's an old system that went down and went down everywhere. It got overloaded," he said. "I think our fix gives us a pretty good indication that it was a legacy network problem that went down," he continued, adding, "By the way, all of the new equipment that we put in, none of that went down." 25 minutes ago Will 'take time' to make up for disruptions: Duffy On how long to expect delays and cancellations due to the ground stop, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters, "I believe that it's going to take us some time to get back to capacity." He said, "it's going to take us some time to unwind what's happened this afternoon," adding that "hopefully tomorrow we are going to start to see far better movement." Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks during a news conference in the James Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Nov. 13, 2026.
Alex Brandon/AP Photo Duffy said he believes things will be "back up and operational" heading into Thanksgiving travel. 37 minutes ago 'Nothing completely certain' on cyberattack, Mullin says Pressed on whether the administration can say with 100% certainty this wasn't a cyberattack, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin responded, "There's nothing completely certain right now," then said, "It doesn't appear that way." "There is nothing that indicates it yet," he continued, saying there hasn't been any evidence of an entity claiming to be behind one. "It appears that this was mechanically driven. However, we're still looking, so we're not going to rule that out," Mullin said.
