{
  "id": 20025029,
  "title": "Work to replace old copper wire led to the FAA’s ground stop",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/14/work-to-replace-old-copper-wire-led-to-the-faas-ground-stop",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-11-14T17:44:28.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Verge",
    "slug": "the-verge",
    "url": "https://www.theverge.com/transportation/1033898/faa-ground-stop-sean-duffy-faa-copper-wire"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "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Duffy revealed that the nationwide ground stop was a result of routine maintenance at a remote FAA facility, replacing outdated copper wire with a fiber optic line.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.",
  "summary": "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Secretary Sean Duffy said that Friday's nationwide ground stop ordered by the FAA was related to work replacing outdated copper wire with a fiber optic line at a \"remote FAA facility.\" The secretary said that this was \"routine maintenance,\" rather than the result of a major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 […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}