Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy held a press conference today to explain the circumstances surrounding a nationwide ground stop ordered by the FAA on Friday. He attributed the disruption to work that was underway to replace aging copper wire infrastructure with modern fiber optic technology at a remote FAA facility. Duffy characterized the maintenance work as routine in nature, noting that the original copper line was being discontinued and required replacement.
The secretary indicated that the exact cause of the operational failure remained unclear. He cited three possible explanations: faulty hardware, a misconfigured router, or performance issues related to work by contractor L3Harris. According to Duffy’s account, the newly installed router malfunctioned by flooding other routers throughout the Air Traffic Control system with excessive data. The secretary reported that the system experienced more than 1,000 connection attempts every 4 to 5 seconds, which disrupted radar feeds and communications between controllers and aircraft.
During the briefing, Duffy used the incident as a platform to request increased congressional funding for Air Traffic Control modernization initiatives. He emphasized that the FAA has been working to upgrade systems while maintaining safety standards, stating that progress was being made on both fronts. However, Duffy indicated that Congress had provided only partial funding for the modernization work that remains necessary, suggesting additional resources would be required to complete planned improvements.
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