Travelers around the country react after rare FAA nationwide ground stop

'People in tears': Travelers around the country react after rare FAA nationwide ground stop While the ground stop only lasted for about four hours on Friday, air travel will likely not return to normal for a few days.

The Details

• Updated: 7:37 AM EST Nov 14, 2026
• Editorial Standards ⓘ
• Kate Malongowski
• Sr Digital Curator
• Alexis Crandall
• Anchor/Reporter
• Abner Sosa
• Multimedia Journalist

'People in tears': Travelers around the country react after rare FAA nationwide ground stop While the ground stop only lasted for about four hours on Friday, air travel will likely not return to normal for a few days.

• Updated: 7:37 AM EST Nov 14, 2026
• Editorial Standards ⓘ
• Kate Malongowski
• Sr Digital Curator
• Alexis Crandall
• Anchor/Reporter
• Abner Sosa
• Multimedia Journalist
• While flights have resumed after the

Federal Aviation Administration's rare nationwide ground stop on Friday, thousands of travelers around the country were left scrambling to make hotel accommodations or find other ways to get to their destinations.

Video above: 'I don't know what to do': Travelers stuck amid nationwide ground stop While the ground stop only lasted for about four hours on Friday, air travel will likely not return to normal for a few days.

It was the FAA's first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned.

Before that, the last time had been after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

'People in tears'

Hearst Television sister station WPTZ reported from the Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport in Burlington, Vermont, where lines formed at the check-in counters as people waited for answers.

Two people who spoke to the station said they were on their flight when the pilot broke the news that their flights and thousands of others across the U.S. would not be taking off.

"I saw a couple of people in tears," said Chad Brightbill, from Colorado.

Friday's ground stop lasted a few hours, but during the chaos, some travelers say it brought back memories of 9/11 when no flights took off for two days.

"Everybody's sort of looking at each other and trying to figure out what's going on. It was a little scary. I was around for 9/11, so it kind of felt like that," Brightbill said. "I was just getting ready to get on a plane that day. It was concerning."

He said he plans on using the unexpected delay to explore Burlington, booking a hotel for the weekend before his rescheduled flight on Sunday.

Interactive graphic shows the dramatic impact of Friday's FAA ground stop The unexpected hiccup, while inconvenient, is part of the price of travel, said Dan Leonardi, who travels from Burlington, Vermont, to New York City every week.

"I travel a lot, like every week, so it's part of the deal. I feel bad for people who I think there was a family that had a cruise tomorrow. They might miss that. I feel bad for people that have real plans," said Leonardi. "I have plans to go see my family, but unfortunately, when you travel as much as I do, it's part of the deal."

What are your options, rights after Friday's FAA ground stop?

'We were baffled'

Meanwhile, Hearst Television sister station KOAT reported from the Albuquerque International Sunport.

A track and field team from Wyoming that was in New Mexico was looking for ways to get back home.

"We're thinking about driving back because it's about. It's just a little bit longer to drive back. Just an inconvenience to get cars and stuff," a team member said.

Two travelers heading to Nashville for a weekend getaway shared their reaction to the situation.

"We were baffled, mostly because our flight was initially delayed right before the ground stop had even occurred," one of the travelers said.

Another passenger, who had been sitting on a plane at Sunport, described the sudden change in plans.

"They pulled us back into the gate, held us there for about 15 minutes, and then pulled the jet bridge up, and we deplane. Yeah. Big, big, big inconvenience for you. Oh. Very much. My son's birthday is tomorrow," the passenger said.

Trump administration blames 'overloaded' systems for ground stop after FAA lets flights resume 'We're just trying to figure it out' Hearst Television sister station KHBS in Arkansas spoke with travelers at Northwest Arkansas National Airport waiting to return to Indiana and a Fayetteville man grounded in Dallas.

Matthew Hoover and Caroline Newitt, who were visiting Northwest Arkansas from Upland, Indiana, said their American Airlines flights had been changed three times as they tried to get home.

"We’ve been, you know, headed to Charlotte and then said, headed to Dallas and all these things. O’Hare, Chicago," Hoover said. "So, we’re just trying to figure out. They’ve been, you know, delayed by an hour, delayed by two hours, delayed by three hours. We’re ready to fly. We’ll see what happens."

Noel Sosa, of Fayetteville, was aboard an American Airlines flight from Dallas to Northwest Arkansas when the ground stop took effect. He said the situation began developing while the plane was in the air.

"Apparently, man, all this developed while we were up in the air. They made an announcement that something was going on. But we’d be fine," Sosa said. "But once we got here, and, you know, you’re able to get out of airplane mode, we started getting all the news that, you know, nothing’s going anywhere."

After the plane landed in Dallas, Sosa said, passengers learned their flight would not be taking off again. The aircraft sat on the tarmac for about an hour as they waited for a gate.

"We’re all just here on the runway, waiting our turn, I guess," Sosa said.

He and his coworkers tried to figure out how to get home, possibly by passenger van.

"If not, man, I was just going to tell my wife, ‘Hey, get in that Jeep and come get me,'" Sosa said.

Sosa said he was supposed to be back in Northwest Arkansas around 7:30 p.m. Friday, with a full day of work ahead of him Saturday.

"I was ready to get back to it, get back to work, get back to my beautiful wife, get back to my life," Sosa said. "And apparently all that’s on pause right now."

Travelers were advised to check with their airlines for updated flight information.

• Hearst Television stations
• WPTZ,
• KOAT and

KHBS contributed to this report.

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