Ground stop at Raleigh-Durham (RDU), Oct 12, 2026

EndedEquipment outage halts Raleigh-Durham departures for two hours

Started: Mon, Oct 12, 10:25 AM EDT14:25 UTC
Ended: Mon, Oct 12, 12:28 PM EDT16:28 UTC
Duration: 2 hr 3 min
Cause: equipment outage; Extended 1 time

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What happened

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

Cause: Equipment problems stopped flights from leaving Raleigh-Durham while air traffic control worked on the outage. The weather that day was clear enough for normal flying.

The ground stop began at 14:25 UTC and was extended, with departures also held from more air traffic control centers at 15:28 and 15:33 UTC. It ended at 16:28 UTC, after lasting 2 hours and 3 minutes.

Impact by airline

Aircraft seen on the ground at RDU and holding nearby, by airline.

Airline	On ground	Holding
Mesa Airlines YV	1	—
Breeze Airways MX	1	—
Southwest Airlines WN	1	—

Impact by region

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

Center	Status
Albuquerque Center (ZAB)	Held
Chicago Center (ZAU)	Held
Boston Center (ZBW)	Held
Washington Center (ZDC)	Held
Denver Center (ZDV)	Held
Fort Worth Center (ZFW)	Held
Houston Center (ZHU)	Held
Indianapolis Center (ZID)	Held
Jacksonville Center (ZJX)	Held
Kansas City Center (ZKC)	Held
Los Angeles Center (ZLA)	Held
Salt Lake City Center (ZLC)	Held
Miami Center (ZMA)	Held
Memphis Center (ZME)	Held
Minneapolis Center (ZMP)	Held
New York Center (ZNY)	Held
Oakland Center (ZOA)	Held
Cleveland Center (ZOB)	Held
Seattle Center (ZSE)	Held
Atlanta Center (ZTL)	Held

Aircraft at the airport

Peak 2 on the ground, 0 holding nearby.

On the ground Holding nearby

Timeline

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

Oct 12, 10:25 AM EDT
Ground stop issued at RDU for equipment outage, until 11:30 am EDT. Departures held from ZAU, ZTL, ZDC, ZNY and 4 more.
Oct 12, 11:28 AM EDT
Extended until 12:30 pm EDT.
Oct 12, 11:28 AM EDT
Scope widened: departures now also held from ZHU, ZMA, ZKC, ZME and 1 more.
Oct 12, 11:28 AM EDT
New advisory issued.
Read the advisory ↗
Oct 12, 11:33 AM EDT
Scope widened: departures now also held from ZLA, ZLC, ZFW, ZDV and 3 more.
Oct 12, 11:33 AM EDT
New advisory issued.
Read the advisory ↗
Oct 12, 12:28 PM EDT
Ground stop ended after 2 hr 3 min.

Advisories

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

ATCSCC ADVZY 060 RDU/ZDC 10/12/2026 CDM GROUND STOP

CTL ELEMENT: RDU
ELEMENT TYPE: APT
ADL TIME: 1526Z
GROUND STOP PERIOD: 12/1516Z - 12/1630Z
DEP FACILITIES INCLUDED: (ALL+CZY_AP) ZLA ZAU ZLC ZTL ZDC ZNY ZHU ZJX
 ZFW ZOB ZDV ZOA ZSE ZBW ZMA ZKC ZME ZID ZAB ZMP  CYHZ CYOW CYUL CYYZ
 CYTZ CYQB
PREVIOUS TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 0 / 0 / 0
NEW TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 124 / 57 / 31
PROBABILITY OF EXTENSION: MEDIUM
IMPACTING CONDITION: EQUIPMENT / OUTAGE
COMMENTS: EXPANDED TO ALL+CZY SCOPE.

Original advisory ↗

ATCSCC ADVZY 058 RDU/ZDC 10/12/2026 CDM GROUND STOP

CTL ELEMENT: RDU
ELEMENT TYPE: APT
ADL TIME: 1523Z
GROUND STOP PERIOD: 12/1513Z - 12/1630Z
DEP FACILITIES INCLUDED: (2ndTier) ZAU ZTL ZDC ZNY ZHU ZJX ZOB ZBW
 ZMA ZKC ZME ZID ZMP
PREVIOUS TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 252 / 59 / 7
NEW TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 1833 / 113 / 52
PROBABILITY OF EXTENSION: MEDIUM
IMPACTING CONDITION: EQUIPMENT / OUTAGE
COMMENTS:

Original advisory ↗

ATCSCC ADVZY 050 RDU/ZDC 10/12/2026 CDM GROUND STOP

CTL ELEMENT: RDU
ELEMENT TYPE: APT
ADL TIME: 1420Z
GROUND STOP PERIOD: 12/1410Z - 12/1530Z
DEP FACILITIES INCLUDED: (Manual) ZAU ZTL ZDC ZNY ZJX ZOB ZBW ZID
PREVIOUS TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 0 / 0 / 0
NEW TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 595 / 76 / 37
PROBABILITY OF EXTENSION: MEDIUM
IMPACTING CONDITION: EQUIPMENT / OUTAGE
COMMENTS: LOSS OF COMMS AND AUTOMATION

Original advisory ↗

Where flights were held

Departures to RDU were held from 20 centers (ALL+CZY_AP).

Chance of extension: MEDIUM

Weather at the time

METAR, weather alerts and SIGMETs at the airport during the stop.

When it started

VFR

METAR KRDU 121351Z 31007KT 260V330 10SM CLR 22/16 A2996 RMK AO2 SLP140 T02170161 $ · observed Oct 12, 9:51 AM EDT

Latest during the stop

VFR

METAR KRDU 121551Z 33011G23KT 10SM FEW110 24/16 A2997 RMK T02440161 · observed Oct 12, 11:51 AM EDT

In the news

Headlines that mention this airport and the disruption. Links open the publisher.

Raleigh-Durham airport sees brief flight delays after contractor cuts FAA tower fiber-optic line
WXII · Oct 12, 12:04 PM EDT
Damaged fiber-optic line causes delays at RDU Airport
WRAL · Oct 12, 11:31 AM EDT

Raleigh-Durham (RDU) live status →Every ground stop at RDU →Replay Oct 12, 2026 on the map →Read the full advisory ↗What is a ground stop? →

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 RDU 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 RDU, every 30 minutes while active and once more after the end. Delayed means 15 or more minutes late at RDU; 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 RDU 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 RDU, 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.