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Work to replace old wire caused air traffic control issue that grounded flights: White House
Officials said the outage stemmed from routine maintenance that overloaded old FAA equipment and stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers.
- On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop for four hours, the longest in 25 years, causing thousands of flight cancellations and stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers across the United States.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said routine maintenance by contractor L3Harris to upgrade copper wiring to fiber optics overloaded antiquated equipment, causing "intermittent" communications and radar gaps that triggered the shutdown.
- Nearly 25,000 flights were delayed and over 9,000 were canceled Friday, representing 14% of all departures, while travelers scrambled to book Amtrak trains and other alternatives to reach destinations.
- FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford stated Saturday that "the worst is behind us" and expects the system to be fully operational by the end of Sunday as airlines work through backlogs.
- Secretary Duffy urged Congress to approve $30 billion in funding to modernize aging infrastructure, calling the investment a "great end-of-the-year Christmas present for the American people" to prevent future disruptions.
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Old copper wire may have caused air traffic control issue, U.S. transportation secretary says. Follow for live updates.
A faulty copper wire in an “incredibly old” telecommunication issue may have caused an air traffic control issue, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says.
·Toronto, Canada
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FAA blames Friday's ground stop on 'equipment issue' during telecoms network upgrade
A person looks at a departures board showing delays and cancellations at LaGuardia airport on November 13, 2026 in the Queens borough of New York City.(Adam Gray)Friday's nationwide ground stop was declared after an error occurred while a contractor was updating an old Federal Aviation Administration telecommunication line, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday. L3Harris, a long time contractor for the Federal Aviation Administratio…
·San Diego, United States
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Total News Sources10
Leaning Left4Leaning Right1Center5Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Center
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources are Center
50% Center
L 40%
C 50%
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