Transportation secretary blames ‘routine’ equipment upgrade for grounding flights nationwide

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy explained on Saturday that a nationwide ground stop, halting flights across the United States, was due to routine maintenance work. The issue arose while copper wire was being upgraded to fiber optic cable by L3Harris, a contractor for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). After the upgrade, a router overloading a critical communication system led to the ground stop.

Duffy appeared at a press conference, which struggled with technical difficulties, to address the situation. The FAA's acting CTO, Rebecca Guy, stated that the network instability prompted an investigation, revealing two devices pinging the network at a high rate—approximately a thousand connections every four to five seconds. These devices were quickly disabled, and the network was stabilized.

Guy and Duffy both emphasized the need for Congress to provide more funding for aviation equipment upgrades. The ground stop was only the third of its kind in the 21st century, resulting in more than 8,200 flights being canceled on Friday and at least another 3,000 on Saturday. Despite the ground stop's lifting, the effects persisted, with at least 3,000 additional flights canceled on Saturday.

The ground stop followed the FAA's announcement of an AI tool for air traffic controllers, though the controllers' union claimed they were not consulted during its development. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford insisted there was "zero evidence of anything nefarious and zero evidence of anything AI-related," asserting that the agency was addressing an equipment issue.

When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin questioned whether the ground stop was AI-related, he replied, "We call it SI around here, remember? SI."