US FAA Ground Stop: System Upgrade Error Blamed for Longest Nationwide Air Traffic Halt Since 9/11

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has revealed that maintenance on an aging telecommunications system likely caused a rare, hours-long Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ground stop that paralyzed air traffic across the United States.

During a news conference in Washington, DC, on Saturday, Secretary Duffy explained that routine work performed on Friday aimed to upgrade a router from copper to fiber at a remote location. He stated that either a "contractor error or a faulty piece of equipment" caused the router to flood the national air traffic control system with approximately 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds.

This technical failure disrupted radar feeds and communications between air traffic controllers and aircraft, prompting the FAA to order a ground stop to ensure safety. The Transportation Department identified the contractor responsible for the maintenance as L3Harris, a US-based aerospace and defense company tasked with modernizing the FAA's communications infrastructure.

Secretary Duffy questioned whether the incident was a result of "incompetence" or a faulty router, emphasizing that L3Harris "didn't meet the moment." While L3Harris has worked with the FAA for decades, Duffy noted that the government intends to hold the responsible parties accountable. Al Jazeera has requested comment from L3Harris, but the company has not yet responded.

Addressing concerns of a cyberattack, the US government clarified on Saturday that they do not believe the outage was malicious. "Once we were able to isolate the work being done at this location, all of our systems came back online," Duffy said, ruling out a cyber-related cause.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford echoed these sentiments, stating there is "zero evidence of anything nefarious, and zero evidence of anything AI-related." He added that a full root cause analysis will be released to the public once available.

The ground stop, the longest nationwide halt since 9/11, has left thousands of travelers and airlines struggling to recover. Administrator Bedford noted that crews and aircraft for 12,000 lost flights are out of position. Consequently, the FAA expects 4,000 to 5,000 of Saturday's 41,000 scheduled flights to be cancelled to facilitate a full recovery by Sunday.