# FBI Said to Probe Whether Software Update Caused Mass FAA Outage

Source: [Bloomberg Technology](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-11-13/fbi-said-to-probe-whether-software-update-caused-mass-faa-outage) · 2026-11-13 · Industry
Page: https://themorning.dev/story/fbi-said-to-probe-whether-software-update-caused-mass-faa-outage-7355ece2f9d26b2f
Kind: outage · Impact: high

## In brief

- The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for all US airports after communication issues affected multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers.
- The FAA described the stop as following "extraordinary circumstances" and called the issues "communication issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers."
- According to a person familiar with the matter, the FBI does not believe the disruption was caused by a cyberattack or criminality, and is examining whether a software update caused it.

## Why it matters

A nationwide halt to air traffic shows how a single failure in communications systems can ground an entire national network. The cause had not been officially confirmed in the sources, so engineers at aviation and critical-infrastructure organizations should follow the investigation's findings on whether a software update was responsible.

## Timeline

- 2026-11-13: FAA issues nationwide ground stop for all US airports following communication issues at multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers
- 2026-11-13: Reports say the FBI is probing whether a software update caused the outage and does not believe it was a cyberattack

## Coverage

- [Source: the FBI is probing whether the FAA outage was caused by a software update, and doesn't believe it was due to a cyberattack or criminality (Myles Miller/Bloomberg)](https://www.techmeme.com/261113/p33#a261113p33) — Techmeme, 2026-11-13
- [FBI Said to Probe Whether Software Update Caused Mass FAA Outage](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-11-13/fbi-said-to-probe-whether-software-update-caused-mass-faa-outage) — Bloomberg Technology, 2026-11-13
- [US government grounds all flights across the United States ‘due to extraordinary circumstances’](https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/13/u-s-government-grounds-all-flights-across-the-united-states-due-to-extraordinary-cirumstances/) — TechCrunch, 2026-11-13
- [The FAA issues a nationwide ground stop for all US airports following "communication issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers" (Alex Fitzpatrick/Axios)](https://www.techmeme.com/261113/p30#a261113p30) — Techmeme, 2026-11-13
- [FAA Ground Stop Issued Due to ‘Extraordinary Circumstances’](https://www.securityweek.com/faa-ground-stop-issued-due-to-extraordinary-circumstances/) — SecurityWeek, 2026-11-13
- [All US airports are currently ground stopped](https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/2121347654714077605) — Hacker News: Front Page, 2026-11-13
- [FAA Issues National Ground Stop](https://www.fly.faa.gov/adv/adv_otherdis?adv_date=11132026&advn=111) — Hacker News: Best, 2026-11-13

Tags: faa, air-traffic-control, outage, aviation, incident-response

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Brief generated by AI (claude-haiku-5-5) from the reporting listed under Coverage. Headlines belong to their publishers. The Morning Dev – https://themorning.dev