Pilots and Controllers Kept Communicating During Outage

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTTransportation Secretary Sean Duffy said during the intermittent outage, controllers could still reach pilots.Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Friday.Credit...Alex Kent/The New York TimesNov. 13, 2026, 10:33 p.m. ETA communications outage on Friday led the Federal Aviation Administration to pause departing flights nationwide, but pilots were not entirely cut off from federal air traffic controllers.In a Friday night news conference, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the outage was intermittent, so federal controllers were still able to reach pilots.“It wasn’t a complete blackout in communication or radar,” he said. “So we were able to keep some of those communications going.”But even in a complete outage, aviation authorities have multiple backups to maintain contact with pilots.Pilots and air traffic controllers primarily communicate by voice radio, using primary, backup and emergency frequencies.Controllers and airline dispatchers can also send text-based messages to pilots. And many commercial planes are equipped with satellite communications, which are especially useful for reaching people on the ground when the planes are flying in remote airspace like over the ocean.If a control tower loses radio capabilities, it can also communicate with pilots with high-intensity colored lights, which pilots can acknowledge by rocking their wings or flashing lights in response.Niraj Chokshi is a Times reporter who writes about aviation, rail and other transportation industries.Related ContentAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT