(Photo courtesy of Anadolu)
HAMILTON, Canada – The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a nationwide flight ground stop Friday after a telecommunications outage disrupted air traffic operations and forced authorities to temporarily suspend flights across the United States.
The FAA issued the ground stop Friday evening following what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described as a communications problem affecting the country’s air traffic control system.
The precautionary measure disrupted thousands of flights before the aviation regulator cleared the resumption of operations several hours later.
Speaking at a White House news conference, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin assured the public that passenger safety had not been compromised during the incident.
“I just want to reiterate this: the public was never at danger through this process,” Mullin told reporters.
“There was no flights at risk. FAA was able to handle it. We did it out of an abundance of caution,” he added.
Mullin said investigators were still determining the cause of the outage and had not ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack.
“We’re still looking at it. We’re not ruling out anything,” he said.
However, he indicated that the disruption may have been caused by compatibility issues between newly installed technology and the FAA’s aging infrastructure.
“What it appears to be right now is, as Secretary Duffy and FAA was going in and putting patches into the system, they were putting new equipment and new technology, and that new technology was overwhelming the older system,” Mullin explained.
Duffy calls for $50-billion air traffic system overhaul
Duffy described the nationwide disruption as “an emergency” and warned that similar failures could occur unless the United States modernized its aging air traffic control infrastructure.
The transportation secretary acknowledged that smaller outages had occurred previously but said he had not anticipated a disruption of such magnitude.
He stressed that the equipment involved in the failure consisted of outdated systems that remained vulnerable to further breakdowns.
“You will have more of them unless the American people and the Congress tell us to build,” Duffy warned.
He called for a complete overhaul of the country’s air traffic control network, estimating that modernization would require approximately USD 50 billion.
Duffy urged Congress to provide the necessary funding, arguing that the administration could not undertake the extensive upgrades without legislative support.
“President Trump is a builder,” he said, emphasizing the need for congressional action to finance the project.
Cruise ship collision unrelated to aviation disruption
Meanwhile, Mullin clarified that a separate maritime accident involving a cruise ship and a tanker on the Mississippi River in New Orleans was unrelated to the nationwide aviation outage.
The collision occurred Friday and resulted in several passengers requiring medical attention.
“All 195 souls are accounted for. 32 are at the hospital,” Mullin said.
He confirmed that none of the hospitalized individuals were in critical condition.
Describing the outcome as “a miracle,” Mullin emphasized that the two incidents were entirely separate.
The FAA’s investigation into the communications failure remained ongoing as federal authorities assessed the technical issues that triggered the nationwide ground stop.
The incident renewed concerns over the reliability of the US air traffic control network and the need for major infrastructure investments to prevent similar disruptions.
