Work to replace old copper wire led to the FAA’s ground stop
At a press conference today, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that Friday's nationwide ground stop ordered by the FAA was related to work replacing outdated copper wire with a fiber optic line at a "remote FAA facility." The secretary said that this was "routine maintenance," rather than the result of a major modernization effort. He […]
On Friday, thousands of flights were grounded due to issues with a new router linked to a fiber optic upgrade. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revealed that the nationwide ground stop was a result of routine maintenance at a remote FAA facility, replacing outdated copper wire with a fiber optic line. The old wire was being discontinued, necessitating the upgrade.
The root cause of the problem remained unclear, with possibilities including faulty hardware, a misconfigured router, or incompetence on the part of contractor L3Harris. The newly installed router reportedly flooded other routers in the Air Traffic Control system, sending over 1,000 connection attempts every 4 to 5 seconds. This caused disruption to radar feeds and communication with planes.
Duffy urged Congress for additional funding to modernize the Air Traffic Control system, noting that only a "partial payment" had been provided.
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