US air travel disruption FAA nationwide ground stop recovery, Digi Mart USA News (Washington): US air travel is not expected to return to normal schedules until late on Sunday, November 15, according to Federal Aviation Administration head Bryan Bedford, as the aviation system gradually recovers from a nationwide flight shutdown.
The FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop on Friday that halted nearly all departing flights for almost five hours. According to FlightAware, airlines cancelled about 9,200 flights and delayed about 7,500 on Friday, and as of 9.35pm ET on Saturday had cancelled more than 6,400 flights and delayed more than 8,000. FlightAware said 875 flights scheduled for Sunday were already cancelled.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the problem was traced to FAA contractor L3Harris’ installation of at least one new router at a remote facility. Officials said they were still working to determine whether the fault was user error, installer error or a faulty router, and the White House convened an emergency meeting in the Situation Room on Friday while agencies checked whether a cyberattack was involved.
The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union said the issue was isolated to two routers updated on Friday, which an official told Reuters were believed to be in Arkansas and Texas. L3Harris said it is supporting the FAA’s investigation.
Duffy said the router issue caused data overload at other communications centres, affecting communications and radar at 17 of the FAA’s 22 en route centres, while Bedford said no facilities went dark.
Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines each cancelled about 25 per cent of their flights on Saturday, while JetBlue cancelled nearly 45 per cent. Airlines have issued travel waivers allowing passengers to rebook without cost, and tens of thousands of people were reported stranded in airports.
The disruption comes amid long-running strain on the US air traffic control system, including ageing technology and a shortage of several thousand controllers. Duffy has requested US$50 billion to upgrade air traffic control systems, up from an earlier US$30 billion request, after Congress approved US$12.5 billion last year.
Democratic Representatives Rick Larsen and Andre Carson said their committees would hold the administration accountable after the incident.
