There has been a temporary telecommunications outage - out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
There has been a temporary telecommunications outage - out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted
The FAA 
@FAANews
There has been a temporary telecommunications outage - out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted. Every flight has been accounted for and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis.
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If you saw DHS Secretary Mullin do a brief press conference you cannot be reassured. The dude is in way over his head.
A lot of flyer misery out there this evening.
gizmodo.com /the-faa-is-rolling-out-its-ai-air-traffic-tool-nationwide-2000839347
The FAA Is Rolling Out Its AI Air Traffic Tool Nationwide
11/ 12 /2026
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is expanding use of an $875 million AI tool, SMART, to “assist in managing air traffic across the entire national airspace system,” Ars Technica reported on Thursday—but the agency says that the route-management software will not affect air safety.
The FAA first rolled out the Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories (SMART) system for Washington, D.C., airspace in September and claims it has already rerouted 180 flights for average savings of 10 minutes and 80 gallons of fuel, Ars wrote (that’s just shy of $345 per flight, at jet fuel rates of $4.31/gallon as of Thursday). The agency wrote on Nov. 10 that after the D.C. test, it will “now use SMART in the airspace of all 22 centers across the country to reduce delays, reduce fuel consumption and improve the travel experience for the flying public.” The tech was already being deployed at some airports .
While FAA fact sheets describe the system as combining “weather patterns, flight paths, traffic flow and controller staffing metrics,” Ars wrote, the FAA also says a D.C.-based team of experts validates findings before they’re ever passed on to air traffic control, and the controllers retain the final decision on whether to accept SMART’s suggestions. Basically, the FAA’s claim is that this system predicts delays and optimizes routes, and that those improved routes are passed on to controllers in pretty much the same process as before.
Sean Duffy, President Donald Trump’s secretary of transportation, has talked up the SMART launch a great deal in recent months, stating it will help with inefficiency. He’s emphasized that there’s “always going to be a human that manages the airspace in America,” according to Politico .
That said, Ars reported that the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) told Flying Magazine it was not involved in the “design, testing, or implementation of SMART and therefore cannot speak to its effect on the air traffic control workforce.” Democrats in the House have also expressed concerns about the tool and recently sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) asking that it review the FAA’s SMART implementation strategy, performance metrics, and safety risk management, according to Fedscoop .
The concern here appears to be that the Trump administration, which has a slipshod record on air safety and has repeatedly taken heat over delays caused by air traffic control personnel issues , is rushing an insufficiently tested system into widespread use.