Video shows US air traffic falling in real time after suspension; see

The United States civil aviation agency, the FAA, suspended all flights in the country this Friday (13), citing a communication problem that paralyzed the country's air traffic, canceling thousands of flights and affecting millions of passengers.

The Flightradar website, which monitors the route and status of flights around the world, showed the reduction in routes in real time.

The last time the United States ordered a nationwide suspension of takeoffs was in January 2023, when the pilot notification system failed. At the time, the suspension lasted just under two hours, despite the system failure having lasted 12 hours. Before that, the measure had been adopted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that members of the Donald Trump administration do not suspect sabotage or deliberate attack as the cause of the failure. "So far, there is no indication that it was a malicious attack against us. For now, it is just an interruption in telecommunications," he said.

Despite this, he stated that he does not rule out any hypothesis, including failures related to artificial intelligence. "Incoming flights, whether international or those already in the air, will be handled on a case-by-case basis. There will be a priority list as these aircraft approach."

Mullin stated that there was an overload of some communication systems and said that there is no deadline for restarting takeoffs. "I want to reinforce this once again: there is no reason for people to be afraid or worried about their loved ones. This is not another 9/11," he said. "This is a telecommunications failure. It's a very different situation."