On the afternoon of November 13, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered all airports nationwide to suspend departing flights due to a failure in the air traffic control communications system. The grounding lasted more than four hours and was lifted at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time. It was the first nationwide grounding since January 2023 and the second since the September 11 attacks. Transportation Secretary Duffy said radar and communications systems at an air traffic control center became unstable because aging switches and routers were overloaded and data was inconsistent, forcing the system to shut down. Homeland Security Secretary Mullin said no signs of a cyberattack had been found so far, but the possibility had not been entirely ruled out. More than 10,000 flights were delayed nationwide that day, about 2,500 were canceled, and 827 were diverted. (Source: Reuters, Associated Press, November 14) $BTC $ETH