Transportation Secretary calls for $50 billion emergency funding to modernize aging air traffic control system after nationwide ground stop
Sean Duffy said the Friday-wide ground stop was caused by outdated network equipment and urged Congress to provide emergency funding for upgrades, while Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said no evidence of a cyberattack has been found.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the nationwide ground stop on Friday was caused by an aging air-traffic-control network that relied on "old switches, old routers" and 1980s copper lines, which became overloaded and failed across the system. He urged Congress to allocate $50 billion in emergency funding to replace the legacy equipment, describing the situation as an emergency and emphasizing the need for bipartisan support. Duffy added that newer equipment installed recently was not affected and that it could take several days to restore full capacity, but he expects operations to improve by the following day and be back to normal before Thanksgiving travel.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said investigators have found no evidence of a cyberattack behind the outage. He noted that while nothing can be ruled out definitively, current indications point to a mechanically driven failure and no group has claimed responsibility.