The United States is plunged into aviation chaos with thousands of flights grounded and tens of thousands of passengers grounded, due to "obsolete" and "overloaded" control communication systems. The blocking of flights "due to extraordinary circumstances" throughout the national territory was ordered shortly after 4pm local time on Friday (10pm in Italy) by the Federal Aviation Administration and raised fears of tragic scenarios. "This is not a new 9/11," Homeland Security Secretary Mullin assured. After about four hours, the blockade was removed. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed "switches and routers that are really clogged with data" as the reason for the stop and asked Congress to allocate 50 billion dollars, speaking of a "real emergency". Without maintenance "it will continue to break down," he added.
In his first statements about the disruption of flights across the United States, which began in the afternoon, President Donald Trump told Fox News' Peter Doocy that it apparently did not appear to be the result of a cyberattack or an artificial intelligence problem. "He said it doesn't appear to be a cyberattack or an AI issue or anything like that. I asked him the question a couple of different ways and he said that doesn't appear to be the case, adding that it's the first thing they always check," Doocy said on live television. The journalist went on to explain that no one claimed responsibility for the interruption of ground operations. “He said, instead, it appears to be a situation where there is a lot of outdated, malfunctioning equipment in the infrastructure that the Federal Transportation Agency relies on to keep planes in the air,” Doocy added, noting that some of the equipment is as old as fifty years.
Subsequently, about four hours after the blockade, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed "switches and routers that were really clogged with data" as the reason for the plane stop with "tens of thousands of stranded passengers". Duffy, in a press conference with Mullin at the White House which was held almost simultaneously with the lifting of the blockade, spoke of a real emergency for the modernization of the structures and asked Congress to allocate 50 billion dollars. He spoke of a "real emergency" to be addressed with modernization. "Will it happen again? I don't know if this scenario will happen," he added. In other words, the technological updates made "overloaded the pre-existing system" of the FAA, causing it to collapse. “It will continue to break down,” he concluded. Mullin explained that "there was never any life at risk, no flight at risk. There is no indication that the collapse" of the system was "related to a cyber attack", Microsoft's problems with Outlook or an action related to artificial intelligence. He specified that President Donald Trump was constantly informed about the events. The tycoon did not appear in the briefing, but told Fox News he believed the chaos in the skies was linked to "outdated infrastructure". Why didn't Trump speak directly? "The president has confidence in his leadership team, which is why we are so committed to his leadership. Secretary Duffy said he's the best president we've ever had. There's never been a builder and leader like him leading the nation to outline a vision and put together a team," Mullin said. The return to normality of air traffic in the country's airports, from New York to Los Angeles "will be slow", admitted Duffy, while tens of thousands of flights have been cancelled.
The United States is plunged into aviation chaos with thousands of flights and tens of thousands of passengers due to "obsolete" and "overloaded" control communication systems. The ban on flights "due to extraordinary circumstances" throughout the national territory, ordered shortly after 4pm local time on Friday (10pm in Italy) by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has raised fears of tragic scenarios, well imprinted in the memories of Americans. Such a draconian measure by the Air Transport Control Authority was adopted in 2023, when a malfunction caused an FAA computer system to explode, and especially after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. "There is no indication that this is a malicious attack: for now, it is just a disruption of telecommunications. We are not under attack, there is no danger. It is not a new September 11th", assured the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Markwayne Mullin, from the West Wing of the White House, after almost an hour of uncertainty.
