FAA lifts ground stop as homeland security chief blames tech upgrades for ‘overwhelming’ antiquated systems and rules out cyberattack for now

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.

Millions of U.S. travelers were suddenly thrown into limbo Friday afternoon after the FAA announced a nationwide ground stop at all U.S. airports.

Hours later, it was lifted, and federal officials used the incident to highlight the need for more funding to update aging systems.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy initially blamed a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.

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.

Despite recent hacking incidents of freezers in Europe and U.S. military bases, he said it “doesn’t appear” that a cyberattack was involved though he admitted that “there’s nothing certain right now.” Earlier, he ruled out a terrorist attack and said “This isn’t another 9/11.”

Just days before the ground stop, the FAA announced it would deploy an AI tool to help air-traffic controllers

During the briefing, Duffy also suggested that the problem was related to old equipment being overloaded.

“Our fix gives us a pretty good indication that it was a legacy network problem that went down,” he said.

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.

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