Former top FAA official warns of 48-hour recovery after aging tech 'overwhelmed' ahead of ground stop
A former top FAA official who helped shut down New York airspace on 9/11 urged Congress to fund an overhaul of the nation's air traffic control system after equipment problems led to a nationwide ground stop.
Key points
- Full stop," Duffy said, adding that he plans to submit a detailed funding request to Congress covering telecommunications upgrades and improvements to aging runways and control towers.
- Scott Pattillo, a retired United Airlines pilot, said his initial reaction to a nationwide ground stop would have been disbelief if he had been flying at the time.
- FAA BREAKS CONTROLLER HIRING RECORD AFTER CHIEF WARNED SYSTEM WAS 'CHRONICALLY UNDERSTAFFED' "Many of our contractors, many of our partners, they take our money, and they provide really poor service to us.
NBA AND NHL TEAMS BATTLE DELAYS AS NATIONWIDE FAA GROUND STOP DISRUPTS WEEKEND SPORTS TRAVEL Although flights have resumed, McCormick warned that it could take days for air travel to return to normal.
Additional details
- "The newer technology overwhelmed the pre-existing technology, and it led to the overload of the switching and associated software in the telecommunications system," he added.
- "This was an FAA system that didn't meet the moment, our contractor didn't meet the moment or the equipment didn't meet the moment, and caused the outages," Duffy said.
- "This will take several days in order to be able to get all of the aircraft, all the passengers, all the baggage, all of the flight crews, all where they need to be positioned to get the system up and running from early morning through the evening," he said.
- WHEN AIRLINE PILOTS SAY THERE ARE SAFETY ISSUES, WE NEED POLICYMAKERS TO LISTEN AND ACT Despite the widespread disruptions, aviation experts said the decision to halt flights demonstrated the safety measures built into the nation's air traffic system.
- Is this really happening on a Friday the 13th?' And second thing, it harps back to 9/11, and we all remember what that was like, especially if we were working and flying during that time," he said.
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 →
Advertisement
Every article behind this summary — 1 article from 1 outlet
Get stories like this in your inbox.
Subscribe — it's freeOne free email at 6am — your topics, deduplicated, five minutes. No account, no paywall.