US to resume flights after air traffic network failure sparks chaos

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Friday that the United States will resume flights after a nationwide ground stop triggered by a communications failure at air traffic control centers. The outage, the longest since the September 11, 2001 attacks, caused chaos at airports across the country, with over 6,600 flights canceled and 8,600 delayed.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers were stranded, and aviation analysts warned the disruption could last for days. The grounding began at 3:36 p.m. when instability in radar and communications systems led to overloaded data and inconsistencies. Although the immediate problem had been fixed, Duffy cautioned that a comprehensive overhaul of the aging air traffic control system was needed to prevent similar failures.

He called for $50 billion in funding to modernize the system, blaming Congress for failing to approve a previous $30.1 billion upgrade. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated there was no evidence of a cyberattack or rogue AI system, though the investigation was ongoing. Airlines were not required to compensate stranded passengers, as they were not responsible for the FAA system failures.

The incident highlighted the strain on the US air traffic control system, which faces aging technology, equipment, and communication problems, along with a shortage of several thousand controllers.