US flight chaos traced to botched copper wire upgrade: Trump administration
NEW YORK: Weary travellers braced for more flight disruptions Saturday as service resumed at US airports after an hours-long stoppage that the Trump administration blamed on a botched replacement of old copper wire communication lines.
New York saw flight chaos on Saturday as services resumed after an hours-long stoppage blamed on a botched copper wire communication upgrade by the Trump administration. The ground stop, which halted all flights, left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded, with some being pulled off planes before departure. FAA chief Bryan Bedford apologized to the public and predicted full resumption of flights by Sunday's close.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated that the four-hour ground stop occurred due to issues with communication and radar feeds following an upgrade from copper wire to fiber cable. The outage was only the second time such a stoppage had been issued in US airspace since 9/11. Despite assurances of safety, experts warned of potential follow-on disruption as airlines rebook passengers.
The incident highlighted concerns about aging infrastructure, with Duffy requesting $50 billion in funds for upgrades. Some politicians called for investigations into the cause of the disruption and the need to secure the country against cyber threats.
Written by urgent.news from New Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
