FAA lifts ground stop as homeland security chief blames tech upgrades for 'overwhelming' old systems - Fortune
The FAA lifted a nationwide ground stop at all U.S. airports Friday evening after millions of travelers were stranded for hours.
The FAA lifted a nationwide ground stop at all U.S. airports Friday evening after millions of travelers were stranded for hours. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy initially blamed a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers, but later investigations pointed to deeper systemic problems.
System Failure
In a White House press briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin attributed the disruptions to technology upgrades that overwhelmed the FAA's antiquated equipment. He warned that 'it's going to continue to fail' without proper funding.
It's going to continue to fail.
Funding Urgency
Duffy called on Congress to provide emergency funding, suggesting the Trump administration needs $30 billion, later mentioning a potential $50 billion price tag for fixing the FAA's aging systems. The disruption comes just days after the FAA announced plans to deploy an AI tool to help air-traffic controllers.
Global Context
While officials ruled out both cyberattacks and terrorism, noting this wasn't 'another 9/11,' European airlines faced a wave of phony bomb threats this week. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares described Europe's situation as 'hybrid aggression and a form of psychological warfare.' Microsoft also addressed a separate global outage affecting email and AI services, confirming no relation to the FAA disruption.
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