The Federal Aviation Administration's decision to ground all flights nationwide Friday threw the sports world into chaos, leaving NBA, NHL and college teams stranded as they tried to reach their destinations, and NFL teams were left to wonder whether the issue would be resolved in time to travel to their games this weekend.
The FAA issued a notice that said the ground stop was “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety."
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later said there was a communications issue affecting the 22 regional air traffic control centers that direct planes en route between airports nationwide, and that FAA technicians were investigating.
“There’s no reason to be concerned about your loved ones if they’re flying,” Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said.
Most college football teams playing Saturday travel the day before their game, and the stoppage left many schools — including No. 2 Utah, eighth-ranked Texas and No. 9 Tennessee — at a standstill as they departed for road games. The Utes play at No. 22 Arizona, the Longhorns visit No. 24 LSU and the Vols are traveling to Texas A&M in three of the bigger games of the weekend.
“The Southeastern Conference is aware of the FAA's nationwide ground stop and the potential impact on team travel for this weekend's competitions,” the league said in a statement. “We are in close communication with our member institutions to assess potential disruptions and coordinate appropriate responses. The safety and well-being of student-athletes, coaches and team personnel remain our highest priority.”
The Longhorns posted on social media a short video of them boarding their plane before the stoppage began. If they ended up taking a bus to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the trip for the 6:30 p.m. CT kickoff against the Tigers on Saturday would take about seven hours.
"We are grounded and waiting to see when we can leave,” a Texas team spokesman said.
Tennessee spokesman Bill Martin likewise said the Vols had returned to campus and were waiting for more instructions, while Auburn opted to take a bus to Mississippi State and Purdue did the same from West Lafayette, Indiana, for its game at Iowa.
Other schools affected by the stoppage included No. 19 Ole Miss, Baylor, Washington, Kansas State and Minnesota.
Asked whether Kansas State had an alternative plan for its trip to Baylor, a school spokesman replied: “Nothing at this point.”
San Jose State’s football team had boarded a plane and was on the runway for its trip to Air Force for a game Saturday when the plane turned around and went back to the gate. The team returned to campus and was waiting to see what happens.
It also was unclear whether referees, who typically fly to their assignments the day before games, would make it on time. The Big Ten said in a statement that all of its officials had arrived for their scheduled games Saturday.
Several teams were able to take off before the stoppage went into effect, including all those traveling in the Atlantic Coast Conference; Missouri, which was flying to top-ranked Georgia; Duke, which was visiting fifth-ranked Miami; and No. 10 Texas Tech, which posted on social media images of its arrival for a game at Oklahoma State.
Meanwhile, the Nets were among five NBA teams scheduled to fly Friday for games on Saturday. They had just boarded the team plane in New Orleans after playing the Pelicans earlier this week when their flight to Memphis was halted in place.
The Pistons flew earlier in the day to Miami. The Cavaliers, Bulls and Grizzlies play Friday night and were due to fly afterward.
The Cavaliers played in Miami on Friday night and were scheduled to play the Mavericks at home Saturday. Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said about 90 minutes before tip-off that his team was scrambling to find hotel rooms in Miami for Friday night, just in case.
“It’s part of it. You just adapt,” Atkinson said.
There are 14 scheduled games in the NHL on Saturday. The Panthers were among the majority that made it to their destinations before the stoppage began, but the Sharks were left waiting in San Jose to see whether they would be able to travel to Utah.
The FAA did not provide a timeline for restarting flights, leaving sporting events taking place beyond Saturday in limbo. That includes most of the Week 10 schedule in the NFL, along with men's and women's college basketball and other sporting events.
JuJu Watkins and her third-ranked Southern California teammates were trying to get to South Carolina for their game Sunday against the top-ranked Gamecocks. The team had just boarded its flight at Los Angeles International Airport when the ground stop was issued. After a while, the decision was made to deboard passengers and the team returned to the Galen Center.
For some of the NFL teams, trips via bus would be manageable: Pittsburgh plays at Cincinnati, the Los Angeles Rams play at Arizona, Minnesota is visiting Green Bay and Buffalo is scheduled to play the Jets in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
AP Sports Writers Jim Vertuno, Aaron Beard, Tim Reynolds and Beth Harris contributed to this report.
See AP’s full sports coverage here
People walk past a flight board at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Arlington, Va., after the FAA issued a nationwide ground stop. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Aircraft are seen at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Planes sit on the tarmac at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in DFW Airport, Texas, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights nationwide. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
NEW YORK (AP) — One man's pregnant wife was pulled alive from the rubble, while two of his roommates perished. A woman living next door woke from a nap to bright daylight flooding her bedroom because her apartment wall was suddenly gone.
Survivors of the Brooklyn apartment building collapse that killed eight people wept as they recounted their terror and grief during a news conference Friday.
New York officials, from building inspectors to prosecutors, say they're investigating what caused the three-story building to come crashing down as workers were digging at an adjacent construction site.
Those who lost family, neighbors and their homes demanded answers.
“As they’re taking me, evacuating me from the building, I could see my neighbors coming out on stretchers,” said Ciahola Lawrence, whose apartment building next to the one that collapsed had a shared wall ripped away, exposing an abyss of dust and debris below.
“We didn’t deserve this,” said Lawrence, who sobbed in her husband's arms as she spoke with reporters.
Among the dead were two children, ages 9 and 10, according to city officials. Another 18 people were injured, including four firefighters.
Mamadou Mouctar Balde stepped out to buy groceries Wednesday, leaving his pregnant wife and two roommates, Mamadou N’Diaye, 31, and Mamadou Barry, 23, at home. Barry was cooking and N’Diaye was sleeping on the couch, he said in French.
He returned to find firefighters, police and neighbors gathering outside and assumed there had been a traffic accident. Then a woman told him a building had collapsed.
“I didn’t see my wife. I didn’t see my friends,” Balde recalled, a tear streaking his cheek. “I no longer knew where I am.”
First responders found the bodies of N’Diaye and Barry while combing the wreckage. Balde's wife, Fatoumata Bah, was pulled alive from the rubble after nearly 2 1/2 hours trapped beneath a hill of wood and brick. Bah was seriously injured, but she and her unborn child were doing OK, Balde said.
N’Diaye and Barry were cousins who came to the U.S. about five years ago from Conakry, the capital of Guinea. Their uncle said their family is heartbroken.
“We ask the city and the Guinean community to stand for us, to have a justice for this tragedy,” he said.
Other victims came from Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Trinidad, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.
New York police identified the others who died as Nicole Daniela Salvada Rodriguez, 9; Juan Daniel Salvada Guzman, 31; Kevin Santiago Reyes Gonzalez, 10; Gabriel Siguencia, 22; Edgar Sapon, 26; and Jose Luis Caguana Cosquillo, 26.
Ahmed Tigani, commissioner of New York's Department of Buildings, said Friday that his office is conducting “an exhaustive investigation” of the Brooklyn collapse.
The city has ordered inspections at more than 160 sites in New York that are associated with six entities linked to the construction and demolition site next to the fallen building, Mamdani said, significantly raising an earlier count of sites subject to renewed scrutiny.
“I think it is always an outrage when eight New Yorkers lose their lives, when 18 New Yorkers are hospitalized, and when families are shattered as a result of all of this,” Mamdani said.
If investigators uncover “any evidence of criminality,” Mamdani said, “it is one that we follow through to the fullest extent of the law.”
One witness who works across the street said he watched bricks fall minutes before the disaster. A woman in a neighboring building said she and fellow residents blamed vibrations from the construction for cracks that appeared in their apartment walls.
Lawrence said the construction work had been a source of constant disruption, producing noises so loud that “you would hear that thumping and movement in your soul.”
A security camera above Lawrence’s door recorded video of her apartment’s shared wall and the building next door collapsing in a clattering rumble and a thick cloud of dust. Inside her apartment, a closet filled with hanging clothes and bags was exposed to the outside.
The security video shows Lawrence leaving her damaged home with a firefighter, who held her hand as they descended a stairway overlooking mounds of wreckage below.
“This feeling is indescribable,” Lawrence said. “I was right there.”
Zariah Coleman, who also lived in the building next to the one that collapsed, was concerned about her cat. She said Friday that she too had felt the building shake because of the construction.
“I just really hope they come and get our cat,” Coleman said in tears. “He’s hiding from them, and I think he’s scared.”
Rescue operations ended Thursday after crews spent more than a day searching for victims beneath debris removed with power saws, pickaxes and an excavator.
Building records show there were four apartments on the upper two floors and a commercial unit on the ground floor of the collapsed building.
The surrounding blocks along Flatbush Avenue, a busy Brooklyn thoroughfare, are tightly packed with older brick buildings and a few newly built apartment complexes. A mix of Caribbean and Mexican restaurants reflects the diversity of the neighborhood.
A one-story building was demolished earlier this year on the construction site next to the collapsed building. Records show a contractor, Mordechai “Marty” Waisbrod, notified the city that excavation would begin in September and would include rock blasting. The contractor has not responded to phone messages left and emails sent to one of his Brooklyn-based businesses.
Permit applications indicated plans to dig below 15 feet (4.5 meters).
A stop work order was issued in March after inspectors concluded the demolition site lacked adequate overhead protection such as netting to protect neighboring buildings and pedestrians, according to the city's Department of Buildings.
In April, inspectors found that the demolition work had resumed in violation of the stop work order, the department said. Work was allowed to continue after the problems were corrected, Tigani, the city buildings commissioner, said Friday.
“We’re looking at the entire history,” he said, “and if there are additional things we need to see, that will be part of the investigation.”
Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa, and Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press journalists Jennifer Peltz in New York, Laura Turbay in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.
People work at the site of a building collapse, which exposed the interior of a neighboring building, in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Surrounded by public officials and community members, Mamadou Mouctar Balde, whose pregnant wife was injured in the Brooklyn building collapse, becomes emotional while speaking during a news conference in New York, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Zariah Coleman, center left, and, Mossa Keita, center right, residents of the Brooklyn building that partially collapsed, speak during a news conference surrounded by public officials and community members in New York on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) CORRECTION: Corrects to remove husband and add partially collapsed
Surrounded by public officials and community members, Mamadou Mouctar Balde, whose pregnant wife was injured in the Brooklyn building collapse, becomes emotional during a news conference in New York, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Ciahola Lawrence and her husband, James Alexander Williams, residents of the partially collapsed Brooklyn building, become emotional as they speak during a news conference surrounded by public officials and community members in New York on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
