Copper wire replacement caused air traffic control issue that grounded flights across U.S.: White House
- 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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295 Articles
An old copper wire in the bush: why the US had to shut down its airspace
Officials have all but ruled out a cyberattack or the involvement of any artificial intelligence systems, as attention turns to America’s outdated air traffic system that still uses floppy disks.
The U.S. Transportation Secretary revealed that the nationwide flight suspensions on Friday were caused by a disruption during an upgrade of copper to fiber optic cables.
Experts identified the cause of the disruption that caused the suspension of air traffic to the United States, there was no sign of foreign interference, said American transport minister Sean Duffy on Saturday. "It's not about the actions of foreign forces," he said at a press conference.
The Secretary of Transportation dismisses a cyber attack as the source of the incident and plans to restore normalcy on Sunday. More information: USA resumes flight take-off throughout its territory after hours of interruption due to telecommunications failures
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.
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