Departures from airports across the U.S. were suspended for more than four hours because of communication problems in air traffic control systems. The Federal Aviation Administration imposed a nationwide ban on November 13, and later that evening allowed flights to resume. The decision led to thousands of canceled and delayed flights and left many passengers stranded at airports.
The problem affected communications between air traffic controllers and aircraft, as well as the stability of some radar systems. According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, routers and other outdated equipment had been overloaded with data. He said that modernizing the system would require an additional $50 billion in funding, which must be approved by Congress.
“Everything we know makes it clear that this was not a cyberattack,” said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.The Federal Aviation Administration said the grounding had been imposed for safety reasons after communication outages affected several air traffic control centers. Thousands of aircraft were in the air when the crisis began. They were grounded according to established procedures, with no reports of fatalities or incidents related to the grounding itself.
How the UFO Theory Emerged
Against the backdrop of the chaos, videos and collages showing lights moving across the night sky began circulating on social media. Some posts presented the footage as evidence of unidentified flying objects and linked their appearance to the authorities’ decision to suspend departures.
There is no confirmed evidence that these images were recorded during the technical failure or that they were connected to it. Neither the Federal Aviation Administration nor representatives of the U.S. government cited UFOs, an airborne threat or unusual objects as the reason for the grounding. The officially announced explanation remains a communications failure in the air traffic control infrastructure.
The Consequences for Passengers Continued
The resumption of departures did not immediately restore the normal schedule. Airlines canceled thousands of flights, while delays carried over into the following day because of the repositioning of aircraft and crews. Reuters reported more than 3,700 canceled flights and around 2,000 delays on Saturday, while U.S. authorities expected the schedule to return to normal by the end of Sunday.
Thus, the confirmed cause of the unprecedented grounding is a technical failure in the outdated air traffic control system. The UFO theory remains an unsubstantiated claim fueled by unrelated or unverified videos on the internet.
Sources: apnews.com, investing.com, cbsnews.com