Microsoft Denies Its Outage Caused US Flight Grounding
Technology company Microsoft denied that its service disruption was connected to a problem with the air traffic control system that prompted the grounding of all departing flights in the United States on Friday, 13 November.
“We have no indication that the FAA’s nationwide flight halt is related to any Microsoft services,” the company wrote on X, according to a post seen on Saturday (14 November 2025).
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin also dismissed speculation that the United States had been the target of a coordinated cyberattack. He said the incident was not connected to a Microsoft system disruption that had affected services around the world.
“Welcome to Friday the 13th, right? I want to make sure everyone understands that there is no connection between this incident and Microsoft. I know a lot of people jumped to that conclusion,” Mullin said, according to AFP.
Mullin said there had been no cyberattack and that officials had found no evidence of one.
“Usually, if there is a threat or a cyberattack, someone claims responsibility. But there has been no talk of anything like that. We have also found no trace of it,” he added.
US security and law-enforcement agencies are continuing their investigation and have not reached a conclusion about the possible cause. Mullin said President Donald Trump would soon hold a meeting on the matter.
“President Trump is gathering staff in his office shortly,” Mullin said.
Flights resume
According to AFP on Saturday (14 November 2026), Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said US airspace had reopened. He warned, however, that it would take time to recover from the travel disruption.
“At 8.15pm Eastern Time tonight, we reopened the airspace,” Duffy said. “Does that mean all flights can take off right now? It will be a slow process,” he said during a late-night briefing at the White House.
The disruption came a day after Duffy and the White House formally asked Congress to allocate US$30 billion to upgrade and modernise the US Air Traffic Control System.
“Our switches and routers were overwhelmed with data, and the system went down,” Duffy explained.
“It was the outdated hardware that failed. The question for the American people is: do you want Congress to fund these repairs?” he continued.
Duffy stressed that air travel remained safe for the American public.