The US Federal Aviation Administration halted departures from all airports across the country due to a communications problem affecting air traffic control centers. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was currently no evidence of a malicious attack.
“There are no indications at this point that this is a malicious attack against us. For now, this is a telecommunications outage,” Mullin told reporters.
According to him, the authorities are able to communicate at certain levels, but some of the systems have been overloaded. Flights that were already in the air are continuing to land, while international flights are being handled on a case-by-case basis.
“Everyone is safe. There is no reason to worry about your loved ones if they are flying,” the secretary said.
The cause of the failure has not yet been established
Mullin said federal authorities were investigating what had caused the communications disruption. He did not completely rule out a cyberattack, but stressed that there was no basis for drawing preliminary conclusions.
“We will find out what happened,” he said, adding that the first task was to restore communications, after which normal operations would resume.
The Federal Aviation Administration described the halt as a measure taken under extraordinary circumstances and for security reasons. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the problem was affecting all air route traffic control centers.
No timeline for resuming flights
In his remarks, Mullin did not specify a time when the restrictions would be lifted. He said the president had been briefed and that work was proceeding simultaneously on safely landing the aircraft and restoring the systems.
The secretary rejected a direct comparison with the September 11, 2001, attacks, stressing that the incident had not been confirmed as a threat to the United States. The investigation must establish whether this was a technical failure, a telecommunications problem or another cause.
Sources: youtube.com, apnews.com