Sorry America, our bad: FAA ground stop traced to possible comm equipment failure in El Dorado

A nationwide shutdown of departing airline flights Friday, November 13, 2026 was caused by a malfunction – apparently in El Dorado — during modernization of the Federal Aviation Administration’s telecommunications network, federal officials said Saturday.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a router being replaced during a conversion from copper wiring to fiber-optic communications began generating more than 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds.