FAA Nationwide Shutdown Not Connected to Microsoft Outage: Report

The nationwide Federal Aviation Administration shutdown is not connected to Microsoft’s widespread outage … despite the timing of the two major disruptions raising questions about whether a cyberattack or technical failure could be behind both incidents, according to reports.

NBC News correspondent Tom Winter reports he’s been speaking with top law enforcement and cybersecurity officials throughout Friday, and as of 5 PM ET, there’s no indication the Microsoft outage has any connection to the FAA problems.

Winter says officials have found no evidence linking the two incidents, pushing back on speculation that Microsoft’s technical issues may have played a role in the aviation disruption. The FAA has not publicly confirmed or denied whether the two incidents are related.

The clarification comes amid a chaotic day for travelers, with the FAA’s nationwide shutdown raising concerns about flight operations across the country.

As we previously reported, the FAA ordered the unprecedented ground stop Friday afternoon, instructing departing flights at airports nationwide to remain on the ground because of what officials described as an extraordinary circumstance.

Planes already in the air were allowed to land, while international arrivals were being handled on a case-by-case basis. The order sent airlines and airports scrambling as passengers faced delays and uncertainty about when normal operations would resume.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said FAA technicians were investigating the communications failure. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin also said there was no evidence of a cyberattack or other national security threat, describing the incident as a telecommunications outage.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has been dealing with its own massive outage, which began Thursday and affected millions of users worldwide. Outlook, Teams, Copilot, SharePoint and other Microsoft 365 services experienced disruptions, impacting businesses, government agencies and other organizations.

Microsoft has attributed its problems to a technical issue involving a network capacity upgrade and subsequent network changes, saying it found no evidence of malicious or cyber activity. The company had begun restoring services Friday, although some users continued experiencing issues.

Despite the overlap, Winter’s reporting suggests the two major outages are separate incidents, with officials not finding evidence that Microsoft’s technical problems contributed to the FAA’s nationwide shutdown.