Routine Router Upgrade Triggers Nationwide US Flight Grounding, Officials Confirm

Airlines continue to work toward normal operations following the most extensive nationwide flight grounding since the 2001 attacks, which disrupted air travel across the United States.

Saturday saw more than 5,000 flight cancellations, adding to the over 9,000 scrapped the previous day as ripple effects persisted from Friday’s abrupt ground stop, which ended after more than four hours. Airports and carriers continue to manage significant backlogs and delays.

The decision to suddenly ground all planes on Friday initially sparked speculation of a cyberattack.

Officials have since ruled out a cyberattack and attributed the disruptions to a routine replacement of the communications routers that connect the US air traffic control system.

Here is what is known about the incident:

What happened?

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a nationwide ground stop of flights at 3:54 p.m. Eastern Time (20:54 GMT) on Friday, citing a telecommunications outage affecting air route traffic control centres.

The outage caused thousands of flights to be cancelled or delayed across the United States.

The ground stop was lifted at 8:15 p.m. on Friday (01:15 GMT on Saturday), but hundreds of flights remained delayed or cancelled that night, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Aircraft already airborne were permitted to continue to their destinations and land during the ground stop, while international flights were processed on a case-by-case basis, with some allowed to depart despite the restrictions.What caused the ground stop?

A routine upgrade was being carried out, and maintenance work ultimately overloaded antiquated equipment, creating intermittent communications and radar gaps that led to the ground stop, US officials said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Saturday that L3Harris, a contractor, was replacing a section of the system’s old and discontinued copper wire with new fibre optic lines at a remote location on Friday afternoon.

The router in that location then began overloading the air traffic control system, causing communications disruptions. When officials could not identify the source of the overload, they grounded flights nationwide as a safety precaution.

Duffy emphasized that safety is the paramount concern, stating that airspace is shut down whenever such issues arise to protect passengers and crew.

The transportation secretary said contractor error or a faulty piece of equipment caused the router to begin flooding other connected systems.

Duffy told reporters that the router was generating approximately 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds.

The issue affected communications at 17 of the FAA’s 22 en route centres.

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), a union representing FAA safety employees, stated the issue was isolated to two routers updated on Friday, believed to be located in Arkansas and Texas.

An FAA official confirmed the agency conducted a safety assessment prior to the work. The union added that PASS-represented technicians were not involved in the upgrades that led to the ground stop.

Ageing technology and equipment, alongside a shortage of several thousand controllers, have long been concerns plaguing the US air traffic control system.

Duffy told reporters on Friday that he is requesting $50 billion in funding to upgrade these systems, up from an earlier request of $30 billion after Congress approved $12.5 billion last year.

So it wasn’t a cyberattack?

US officials have firmly ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the disruptions.

White House officials had convened an emergency meeting in the Situation Room on Friday amid concerns the incident was due to a cyberattack, but the US government has since said it did not believe that was the cause.

Once the work being performed at the affected location was isolated, all systems came back online, Duffy said. The administration does not believe the incident was cyber-related.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford stated there is zero evidence of anything nefarious or related to artificial intelligence.

Who has been named responsible for the incident?

L3Harris, a US-based aerospace and defence company, is the contractor behind the systems upgrade, the US Department of Transportation said.

L3Harris derives the majority of its revenue from US government contracts, largely from the military.

Duffy said the department is working to determine whether the incident resulted from installer error or a faulty router, noting that the specific fault has not yet been pinpointed.

He added that L3Harris, which has performed decades of work for the FAA, did not meet the expectations of the operation.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated that the network is owned by L3Harris as the prime contractor, and that the department will hold relevant parties accountable.

In response to the allegations, an L3Harris spokesperson said the company has been working in close coordination with the FAA, and that safety and reliability remain its highest priorities.

The company stated it is supporting the FAA’s investigation into the conditions that led to the November 13 ground stop of national air travel.

L3Harris said it takes the nationwide ground stop and its impact on travellers, airlines, and air traffic operations seriously.

L3Harris said it has been modernising the communications infrastructure supporting the National Airspace System in close coordination with the FAA.

It added that it has completed more than 70 percent of the planned airspace communications conversion from legacy copper wires to a fibre optic system.

The FAA said it is conducting additional testing with L3Harris to assess any further risks.

When will flights in the US be back to normal?

Bedford, head of the FAA, cautioned that restoration could take time.

Bedford noted that crews and aircraft are out of position for approximately 12,000 flights that were lost, and that these crews, pilots, and flight attendants need to reach their points of reconnection with their schedules.

He stated that he believes the worst of the disruption is behind the industry.

Duffy said airlines are expected to restore their full schedules by Sunday night.

Airlines have issued travel waivers allowing affected passengers to rebook flights at later dates at no additional cost.

Tens of thousands of people remain stranded in airports across the country, while others have been forced to pay surge prices for hotels and rental cars as airlines work to resume flights.

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