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Transportation secretary warns more flight disruptions are coming after nationwide FAA shutdown as Thanksgiving travel approaches
US travelers have been issued a warning by the country’s authorities ahead of the Thanksgiving holidays, with authorities claiming more flight chaos could be expected.
While the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted its ground stop on Friday evening after approximately five hours, allowing flights to gradually resume following a widespread communications failure, there is growing concern that further delays and cancellations could affect the country during the upcoming Thanksgiving.
Trump’s administration has claimed the incident was caused by new technology being introduced to the country's air traffic control network overwhelming older equipment, resulting in intermittent communication and radar outages.
Trump administration warns of further issues around Thanksgiving
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin insisted nobody had been placed in danger, revealing that more than 3,000 aircraft had been safely brought down during the disruption.
However, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy admitted he could not guarantee the problem would not cause future issues, warning that further outages were possible.
“We didn't think we would have this kind of outage. We did,” Duffy admitted.
“We were able to review what went wrong, and then reboot the system and go. But, you will have more of these.”
The ground stop was just the second nationwide ground halt since the 9/11 terror attacks, with Mullin confirming there was currently no evidence to suggest the disruption was caused by a cyberattack or another deliberate act.
When questioned about the possibility of malicious activity or rogue artificial intelligence being involved, he claimed: “There was no prior indication. There was no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack against us,” Mullin said.
“It’s just a telecommunication outage as of right now.”
“We are able to communicate at certain levels, but it’s overwhelmed some of the systems we have.”
Mullin explained that the FAA had been installing “new equipment, new technology”, but that the upgrades had placed too much pressure on parts of the existing infrastructure.
Duffy also stressed that the incident was not caused by the FAA's new AI-powered system, which is being developed to help predict potential problems in the skies.
“This is all the old legacy equipment. All of the new equipment that's been deployed did not go down,” he claimed.
The Transportation Secretary used the incident to renew his calls for Congress to approve additional funding to replace the country's ageing air traffic control infrastructure, arguing that failing to invest in the system would leave it vulnerable to further problems.
“By doing nothing, you inject way more risk into the system,” Duffy said.
The government has already begun a major overhaul, replacing thousands of outdated copper wires with fibre-optic cables and upgrading hundreds of radio systems, with the project beginning after Congress approved $12.5 billion in funding last year, but Duffy and the White House are now pushing for a further $30 billion to complete the work.
Friday's ground halt led to thousands of delays and cancellations
The scale of Friday's disruption saw thousands of flights affected and potentially more than a million passengers facing uncertainty over their travel plans, less than two weeks before Thanksgiving.
Around 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers had been scheduled to depart US airports, with Duffy revealing that more than 3,500 aircraft were in the air when the ground stop was introduced.
Airports across the country experienced scenes of confusion as passengers tried to find out whether they would be able to continue their journeys.
Although flights have gradually resumed, airlines are expected to require several days to reposition aircraft and crews following the unprecedented delays and cancellations.
Officials remain hopeful that the system will be operating normally in time for the Thanksgiving travel rush, but Duffy's warning that further outages could occur is likely to concern passengers preparing for one of the busiest travel periods of the year.