Nationwide flight delays persist after long ground stop

Air travelers across the United States faced continued disruptions on Saturday, one day after the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years. The pause in flying began Friday just before 4 p.m. Eastern Time and lasted more than four hours. This event left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded and affected travel plans for 1.5 million fliers.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy identified the cause of the stoppage as an equipment outage during a technology update. He explained that new equipment overloaded old routers, creating gaps in communications and radar. Duffy stated that a contractor named L3 Harris was performing routine maintenance at a remote FAA location. The work involved switching telecommunication lines from old copper wire to fiber. Officials are now determining if the issue resulted from user error, installer error, or a faulty router.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford addressed the public regarding the inconvenience. He acknowledged the impact on travelers while defending the decision to halt flights. “I’m sorry that we put you through this, but we did it for the right reasons,” Bedford said. The agency confirmed that the outage was not the result of a cyber attack, a question that arose among some observers.

Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood described the incident as a national calamity. LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, served in that role from 2009 to 2013. He noted that such failures are common when systems rely on outdated hardware. “This is something that no one wishes would ever happen, but when you have old equipment, this is what happens,” LaHood said.

The Department of Transportation is using the incident to renew requests for congressional funding. Duffy has asked for approval of more money to replace aging systems. Air traffic control operations began resuming on Saturday, though the backlog remains high. The FAA expects approximately 5,000 flight cancellations on Saturday as airlines adjust their schedules. Most operations are expected to return to normal by Sunday night.