Thousands of flights were canceled, chaos at US airports. There is a new message

The FAA announced the restoration of traffic at airports just after 1 p.m. 8:16 p.m. Eastern time, after more than 4.5 hours of suspension of flights across the country.

Old system failure

During a news conference after flights were restored, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said the disruption was caused by a failure of the old analog communications system, including communications equipment, switches and routers that had become overloaded with data. He also noted that the digital devices replaced by the administration did not experience any problems.

Nevertheless, the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Markwayne Mullin, said that the available information showed that the failure occurred when the FAA tried to patch the system by introducing new equipment and that the new element overloaded the older one. Duffy, in turn, assured that the new AI system helping in traffic control was not and could not be to blame.

Mullin said that there is currently no indication of a cyberattack or the involvement of third countries, although he announced that the matter will be thoroughly investigated to ensure 100% accuracy. exclude. He noted that the failure appeared to be "mechanical" and no signs of cyber intrusion were noticed.

Mullin also emphasized that the case was unrelated to the failure of Microsoft services.

Necessary modernization of the system

As officials announced, President Donald Trump is expected to declare a state of emergency to accelerate the modernization of the system. Duffy, however, appealed to Congress for additional funds. In his opinion, a total of USD 50 billion is needed to build the new system, while Congress has so far allocated USD 12.5 billion.

The minister admitted that it would take "some time" to resume normal traffic after a break of more than four hours, but estimated that it should return to normal during peak air traffic before Thanksgiving (November 26).

Thousands of flights were canceled

According to Fox News, the suspension of flight departures caused more than 8.5 thousand delays. flights and cancellation of 6.5 thousand next. The result was also mass chaos at airports. Some planes were redirected to other airports due to lack of space. Due to busy gates, in many cases passengers were kept on the plane for hours.

Friday's ban across the country was only the third such case in history. The earlier ones took place after the September 11 attacks and in January 2023 due to the failure of the pilot warning system (NOTAM). In the latter case, the interruption lasted several hours but caused cascading cancellations and delays over the next few days.