FAA lifts ground stop as homeland security chief blames tech upgrades for ‘overwhelming’ antiquated systems and rules out cyberattack for now
In a White House press briefing later on Friday night, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin attributed the disruptions to technology upgrades, for “overwhelming” the antiquated equipment.
Key points
- travelers were suddenly thrown into limbo Friday afternoon after the FAA announced a nationwide ground stop at all U.S.
- The National Weather Service also said there has been no disruption to its radar systems Friday, denying talk online that it had caused the FAA communications issue.
- Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Friday that Europe appeared to be facing “hybrid aggression and a form of psychological warfare.” Meanwhile, consumers are still grappling with the aftermath of a Microsoft outage that shut down email, collaboration and AI functions.
Duffy also called on Congress to provide emergency funding to fix the FAA’s aging systems, saying the Trump administration needs another $30 billion, then putting the price tag at $50 billion.
The FAA last issued a nationwide ground stop in 2023, when files related to an alert system for pilots was unintentionally deleted.
Additional details
- The company said Friday it had no indication that the ground stop is related to its global outage.
- Hours later, it was lifted, and federal officials used the incident to highlight the need for more funding to update aging systems.
- Earlier this year, flights at New York airports were halted when a contractor accidentally cut a fiber communications line in New Jersey.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy initially blamed a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.
- Still, the massive disruption comes as airlines in Europe suffered a wave of phony bomb threats this week.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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