WASHINGTON – Air travel in the United States should return to normal operations by the end of Sunday. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford announced this on Saturday. American airports are still dealing with the aftermath of a massive Friday disruption to air traffic, which caused thousands of canceled and delayed flights and paralyzed travel across the entire country.
According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the cause of the technical collapse may have been the work of a contractor who, as part of a modernization effort, was replacing older copper wiring with new fiber optic cables. Investigators are now examining whether an error occurred during installation, whether a defective component was used, or whether the contractor failed to properly manage the transition process to the new technology.
Secretary Duffy said at a press conference that more than a thousand connection attempts every four to five seconds overloaded other communications centers. This resulted in communication outages between air traffic controllers and pilots and problems with certain radar systems. The Secretary also criticized the conduct of L3Harris, the company involved in modernizing the communications infrastructure.
Friday's disruption lasted approximately four hours and, according to available data, represented the most extensive such event since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Nearly 10,000 flights were canceled during the crisis. Thousands more flights were delayed. On Saturday alone, U.S. airlines canceled more than 4,000 flights and approximately 3,000 additional flights experienced delays.
Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and American Airlines recorded the greatest impacts. JetBlue Airways also experienced significant problems, canceling approximately 40 percent of its scheduled flights according to data published on Saturday.
U.S. authorities emphasize that passenger safety was not directly threatened during the incident. Aircraft that were airborne at the time the order was issued were able to land safely. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin also stated that the investigation so far has produced no evidence of a cyberattack. The investigation is continuing, however, and the National Security Agency (NSA) has also become involved.
The event has once again raised the question of the outdated infrastructure of U.S. air traffic control. Duffy is calling for increased investment in its modernization, from the originally proposed $30 billion to $50 billion. He also warned that without extensive technical changes, similar outages cannot be completely prevented in the future.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford believes the situation will stabilize by the end of Sunday. Passengers must, however, expect continued complications, as restoring air traffic requires not only getting the technology back online, but also returning aircraft and crews to their scheduled routes.
Antonína Veselá