UPDATED: FAA Ground Stop Investigation and The Impact In Minnesota

UPDATE: Saturday, November 14

The FAA lifted its nationwide ground stop around 7:30 p.m. Friday. At about four and a half hours, it was the longest ground stop of its kind since 9/11.

However, the fallout is far from over. Friday's stop canceled or delayed more than 400 flights to and from MSP, and more than 120 flights at the airport were canceled Saturday.

Nationally, about 9,159 flights were canceled Friday, and the total topped 12,500 cancellations by Saturday morning. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday that planes are taking off and "it is safe to fly."

The good news: the FAA says airline schedules should be back to normal by the end of Sunday. Still, travelers should expect more delays and cancellations while airlines reposition aircraft and crews.

As for what caused it, Duffy said Saturday that a contractor was doing routine maintenance at a remote FAA location, switching old copper telecommunication lines over to fiber. That contractor is L3Harris, the FAA's legacy telecom provider, and Duffy said officials haven't yet determined whether it was an installation error or a faulty router.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said there's "zero evidence" the problem was caused by anything nefarious or anything related to artificial intelligence. He said the agency will share its root cause analysis once it's complete.

The Gophers finally made it out, too. After spending about an hour on their plane Friday before returning to campus, the team left MSP Saturday morning and was due to arrive in State College just before noon Eastern. Saturday night's game against Penn State is still set for a 7 p.m. Eastern kickoff.

Some travelers got creative. One Duluth couple stuck at MSP ended up riding with strangers to Denver so they wouldn't miss a concert. If you're flying this weekend, check with your airline before heading to the airport. Our original story from Friday continues below.

Below Is The Original Story Published Friday, November 13

On an average day, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is one of the busiest places in Minnesota. The airport handled more than 36 million passengers in 2025, which works out to roughly 99,000 travelers coming and going every single day.

Commercial airlines alone have averaged nearly 800 takeoffs and landings per day at MSP, and Fridays heading into a weekend are typically among the busiest.

However, Friday, November 13, 2026, turned out to be a Friday unlike any other.

A Rare Nationwide Ground Stop

As we reported earlier, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop Friday afternoon after a communications failure hit air traffic control centers across the country. The advisory was issued at 2:54 p.m. Central Time, ordering all departing flights to stay on the ground until further notice.

Planes already in the air are allowed to land, but planes on the ground can't take off. It's only the second nationwide stop of all departures since the September 11 attacks.

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Officials have been quick to stress that this isn't a security threat. The White House said there's no indication of a "nefarious act", and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called it "just a telecommunications outage."

So what caused it? On Friday, officials said they were looking at several possibilities, including newer technology being added to the system. The company behind one new AI-supported air traffic tool said its system was not the cause. See the update above for the latest on the investigation.

Nationally, the numbers climbed fast. Within a short time on Friday, FlightAware listed at least 8,000 delays and 400 cancellations across the country.

The Impact at MSP

At MSP, departures came to a halt. An MPR News journalist aboard a plane preparing for takeoff said the pilot told passengers he had "never seen this before."

Even the Metropolitan Airports Commission's longtime spokesperson, Jeff Lea, said he couldn't recall a previous nationwide grounding during his six years with the MAC.

The Gophers football team was among those stuck. The team was on its plane, waiting to take off, when the ground stop hit, with its Sun Country flight to State College scheduled to leave Terminal 2 around 2:30 p.m. However, the Gophers do have a little breathing room, since Saturday's game at Penn State is a night kickoff.

Delta travelers will likely feel this the most. Delta carries about 71.5% of all passengers at MSP, followed by Sun Country at 11%. Connections through Chicago are also a headache, since O'Hare and Midway were under ground stops even before the nationwide order.

A Fluid Situation That Could Grow

This is important: every number in this story is a snapshot, and they're likely to grow the longer planes stay parked. By Friday afternoon, FlightAware showed more than 30 cancellations and more than 250 delays for flights to and from MSP, and those numbers are expected to climb.

So far, the FAA has not said when departures would resume, and the estimated end time listed in the advisory, late Friday night, could change in either direction.

When the stop does lift, it won't be like flipping a switch. As air traffic facilities recover, flights will be released only after coordinating with the FAA's command center in Virginia, so departures will likely restart in waves.

Even after flights resume, the effects won't disappear overnight. Disruptions tend to snowball as flight crews reach their maximum duty hours, and planes end up out of position.

MSP saw that firsthand in August, when a regional air traffic control outage caused delays that carried into the next day, even though the outage lasted only about two hours.

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What Minnesota Travelers Should Do

If you're flying out of MSP, Duluth, or anywhere else this weekend, check with your airline before heading to the airport. Then pack a little patience.

The folks at the gate didn't cause this, and they're working hard to get everyone where they need to be.

This is an evolving story and will be updated as more information becomes available. If you have weekend travel plans, closely monitor your flight status.