Earlier as we speak, a widespread Microsoft outage kicked folks out of the whole lot from Xbox Stay to Outlook. Now, the FAA has grounded all U.S. flights till additional discover. The tech large says these two occasions are fully unrelated.
The Federal Aviation Administration introduced the shock nationwide grounding of all airplanes on Friday, seemingly because of some kind of technical malfunction involving the air site visitors management system. Tons of of flights are affected, with these already within the air ordered to land.
“We have now no indication that the FAA’s nationwide floor cease is expounded to any Microsoft providers,” the corporate wrote on X on the finish of enterprise on November 13.
We have now no indication that the FAA’s nationwide floor cease is expounded to any Microsoft providers.
— Microsoft On the Points (@MSFTIssues) November 13, 2026
The denial got here on account of Microsoft’s personal methods struggling a large outage earlier within the day. There have been stories of Copilot, OneDrive, and different Microsoft providers being down. Microsoft 365 Standing on X blamed the outage on “elevated load,” however hasn’t defined the trigger in additional element.
So what’s behind the the FAA floor cease? Trump administration officers have been equally brief on solutions. Homeland Safety secretary Markwayne Mullin blamed a “telecommunication outage,” although the White Home mentioned it didn’t know the trigger.
Q: May this be AI associated?
Mullin: We name it SI round right here. pic.twitter.com/D0HpFyLocH
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 13, 2026
Transportation secretary Sean Duffy wrote on X that there was “a communication challenge impacting all Air Route Site visitors Management Facilities.” “FAA technicians are investigating the difficulty,” he added. “We are going to present instant updates as we’ve them.” That was over two hours in the past.
A bunch of earlier notices have reportedly been deleted from the FAA’s web site. Requested if AI could also be concerned within the outage, Mullin advised a reporter “we name it SI round right here.”
That is solely the third time the FAA has mandated a floor cease within the nation’s historical past. The primary was through the 9/11 terrorist assaults. The second was in 2023. The Trump administration is requesting $30 billion to modernize American’s air site visitors management methods. Microsoft is at present set to spend roughly $50 billon in AI investments within the present calendar yr.