Ground stop at New York JFK (JFK), Oct 11, 2026

EndedBird strike halts JFK departures for 15 minutes

Started: Sun, Oct 11, 3:30 PM EDT19:30 UTC
Ended: Sun, Oct 11, 3:45 PM EDT19:45 UTC
Duration: 15 min
Cause: bird strike

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What happened

AI-written · may contain mistakes. Written from the advisory text and weather only.

Cause: A bird strike at JFK, where a bird hit an aircraft, led air traffic control to briefly stop departures while the situation was checked.

The ground stop began at 7:30 pm UTC on October 11, 2026, with departures held from several air traffic control centers. It was lifted at 7:45 pm UTC after 15 minutes, well before its planned end time of 8:30 pm UTC. The stop ended early and was not extended.

Impact by airline

No airline data was collected for this ground stop.

Airline numbers appear after the first sample, within about 20 minutes of the start.

Impact by region

Air traffic control centers whose departures to the airport were held.

Center	Status
ZDC	Held
ZNY	Held
ZOB	Held
ZBW	Held

Timeline

Every change published while the ground stop was in effect, as seen each minute.

Oct 11, 3:30 PM EDT
Ground stop issued at JFK for bird, until 4:30 pm EDT. Departures held from ZDC, ZNY, ZOB, ZBW.
Oct 11, 3:32 PM EDT
Reason changed to bird strike.
Oct 11, 3:45 PM EDT
Ground stop ended after 15 min.

Advisories

The air traffic control advisories issued for this ground stop, as published.

ATCSCC ADVZY 097 JFK/ZNY 10/11/2026 CDM GROUND STOP

CTL ELEMENT: JFK
ELEMENT TYPE: APT
ADL TIME: 1924Z
GROUND STOP PERIOD: 11/1914Z - 11/2030Z
DEP FACILITIES INCLUDED: (Manual) ZDC ZNY ZOB ZBW  CYHZ CYOW CYUL
 CYYZ CYTZ CYQB
PREVIOUS TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 0 / 0 / 0
NEW TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 405 / 71 / 37
PROBABILITY OF EXTENSION: MEDIUM
IMPACTING CONDITION: OTHER / BIRD STRIKE
COMMENTS:

Original advisory ↗

How it is measured

Status, timeline, cause and held centers: the national airspace status feed, checked every minute, and the air traffic control advisories it links to.
Delays by airline and region: departures and arrivals at JFK 30 or more minutes late, by their estimated delay against the schedule, sampled every 10 minutes while the stop is active and once more after it ends.
Totals and cancellations: arrival and departure boards for JFK, every 30 minutes while active and once more after the end. Delayed means 15 or more minutes late at JFK; cancelled is the airline's cancelled status; codeshares count once. Flights scheduled from the start until an hour after the end are counted.
Held at origin: the same arrivals boards, which carry each flight's scheduled and actual departure from its origin. A flight is held when it is still scheduled, not departed, 15 or more minutes past its scheduled departure at a sample taken during the stop. In scope: its origin is in a held center or listed facility; flights from elsewhere are late for other reasons.
Inbound in the air: the same arrivals boards. At each board taken during the stop, a flight to JFK is in the air when it has departed (en route, or with an actual departure time) and not landed, cancelled or diverted; one still shown in the air over an hour past its arrival estimate, or departed more than 18 hours earlier, is treated as stale and left out.
Diversions: an inbound flight marked diverted during the stop or the wrap-up after it (not one marked before it could have departed), or one still shown in the air 30+ minutes past its arrival estimate that ADS-B (by its ICAO call sign) then found on the ground at another airport, not its origin. The diversion airport is the airport ADS-B found it at, else the updated destination. Cancellations never count. Regional flights flown under another call sign can't be found on ADS-B, so their diversion airport may be unknown.
Aircraft on the ground and holding: ADS-B positions around JFK, every 5 minutes; the airline is read from the call sign. Holding counts airline flights only (passenger, regional and cargo), not private, military or medical flights.
Weather: METARs, SIGMETs and weather alerts.
News: headline links filtered to this airport and these days; we show titles and links only.

Data sources are listed on the credits page.