Eurocontrol halts US‑bound flights after FAA system overload

A failure in the U.S. air‑traffic system prompted Eurocontrol to suspend departures from its 42 member states to the United States for about seven hours on Nov 13‑14.

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Eurocontrol issued a directive to stop all departures to the United States from its 42 member countries after the FAA announced a nationwide ground stop on the evening of Friday, 13 November.

The notice, released from the Network Manager Operations Centre in Brussels at 23:03 GMT, covered flights scheduled between 22:00 UTC on 13 Nov and 05:00 UTC on 14 Nov, affecting airports in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Turkey and other Eurocontrol members.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the emergency stemmed from an overloaded legacy air‑traffic control system that disrupted radar, communications and centre operations nationwide.

The disruption led to more than 6,600 cancelled flights and over 8,500 delayed, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded at airports across Europe and North America.

The FAA lifted the ground stop after roughly four hours, permitting aircraft to depart on a case‑by‑case basis, while Eurocontrol kept its suspension in place until early Saturday morning.

Officials warned that residual effects could linger through the weekend as aircraft and crews were displaced across the transatlantic network.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated that investigations found no evidence of a cyber‑attack, describing the ground stop as a safety precaution.