Communication failure suspends flights in the USA; understand how air control works

A communication failure in air traffic control centers in the United States led the FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration) to suspend all takeoffs in the country this Friday (13). The agency has not yet reported which equipment or system stopped working or what caused the problem.

The measure prevents aircraft on the ground from taking off, but allows those already flying to land. International flights arriving in the country are analyzed individually by the agency.

Regional air traffic control centers are primarily responsible for guiding planes during travel between airports. They perform a different function than control towers, which coordinate the movement of aircraft in and around airports.

Each center manages a portion of the airspace, and communication depends on radio transmitters and receivers distributed throughout the United States. When the centers' communication capacity is compromised, allowing new takeoffs increases the number of aircraft that need to be guided through this infrastructure, which is not functioning normally.

The FAA provides for the suspension of takeoffs, called ground stop, when an installation is unable to fully provide its services, due to equipment failures or other circumstances. The measure seeks to prevent certain sectors of airspace from receiving more aircraft than they can handle.

The American air control network is undergoing a modernization process, following successive warnings about outdated equipment.

In September 2024, the GAO, an oversight body of the United States Congress, released a report that identified maintenance and sustainability problems in 105 of the 138 technological systems used by the FAA in air traffic control, equivalent to 76% of the total.

Of these, 51 were classified as unsustainable and another 54 as potentially unsustainable. The assessment considered factors such as outdated equipment, difficulties in obtaining replacement parts and maintenance capacity.

The body warned again in September 2026 about the challenges of modernization. According to the GAO, the FAA still needed to improve cost and schedule planning for the program designed to replace aging equipment.

Last year, Congress approved $12.5 billion to modernize the FAA's aging communications system. This Friday, before the shutdown, the agency and the White House asked the Legislature for an additional US$30.1 billion to solve other problems.