US transport secretary says copper wire upgrade caused nationwide flight suspension

US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said a nationwide ground stop that caused thousands of flight cancellations was caused by an issue following a copper wire upgrade.

What caused the ground stop

Maintenance was being carried out to switch from copper wire to fibre by a contractor called L3Harris, a technology provider company, Duffy said. A router that was being worked on started flooding other air traffic control systems and created communication issues with planes, which led the government to shut down the airspace for safety reasons.

Duffy said the US has "an incredibly old telecommunications system" and that "it was such an old wire that it was being discontinued."

The government does not believe the problem was caused by a cyber-attack, although an investigation is still under way. Duffy said the government was trying to find out whether the problem was caused by "incompetence" on the part of the company doing the upgrades, or faulty equipment.

Bryan Bedford, who heads the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), told the same news conference: "We see zero evidence of anything nefarious, and zero evidence of anything AI related."

Impact and disruption

No flights were allowed to take off from the continental US for more than four hours from 15:54 EST (19:54 GMT) on Friday. More than 3,500 flights were cancelled and more than 2,000 delayed in the US on Saturday, according to tracking website Flight Aware, as knock-on disruption continues.

In some cases, passengers were left stuck inside planes on the tarmac, unable to take off or to return to the gates. Some international flights were allowed to depart US airports, in an apparent effort to clear space.

Response and outlook

Duffy warned that a similar issue could arise again unless the US Congress approved upgrades to air traffic control infrastructure. US President Donald Trump has requested $30.1bn for the upgrades. Both chambers of Congress are currently controlled by the Republican Party.

Friday's suspension was the longest such incident since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, and the disruption is expected to last for days.

Why it matters

The incident exposed the age of US telecommunications infrastructure used for air traffic control and showed how a single router upgrade can ground flights nationwide, with disruption expected to continue for days.

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Sources

• bbc.com: Copper wire upgrade caused nationwide flight chaos, US transport secretary says
• modernghana.com: Copper upgrade work caused nationwide flight suspension, US transport secretary says. #BBCNews

This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.