Copper wire replacement caused air traffic control issue that grounded flights across U.S.: White House
FAA officials said the system should be back to normal after thousands of cancellations and delays stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers.
- On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded planes for over four hours—the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years—after new technology overloaded antiquated air traffic control equipment, causing "intermittent" communications and radar gaps.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a contractor replacing copper wires with fiber optic lines caused the system overload; he and the White House are pushing for $30 billion more to complete critical infrastructure upgrades.
- The stoppage affected about a quarter of 45,000 daily U.S. flights, with more than 4,100 cancellations. Aviation consultant Andrew Charlton said the "knock-on effect" of the disruption is incredible.
- FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said Saturday that U.S. air travel should be fully recovered by the end of tomorrow, though flights will still experience delays and cancellations throughout the day.
- Modernizing active aviation systems is "incredibly complex and dangerous," aviation consultant Andrew Charlton warned, as officials investigate potential contractor "incompetence" while aging equipment remains a long-term concern.
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277 Articles
Sean Duffy blames tech contractor for FAA outage
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a contractor with L3Harris, an American tech company, is responsible for the outage that caused the Federal Aviation Administration to ground all flights nationwide Friday.
The technical infrastructure of U.S. air traffic control has been obsolete for years.
After a historic flight chaos in the USA, airlines and airports continue to struggle with failures and delays. The cause was a technical fault – the exact source of error is still unclear.
A large-scale aircraft crash in the United States resulted from the replacement of copper cables with fibre optics, claimed the head of Mintrans Sean Duffy.
Faulty Router or Contractor Error May Have Triggered FAA Ground Stop, Duffy Says
Planes sit on the tarmac at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in DFW Airport, Texas, on Nov. 13, 2026, after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights nationwide. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
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