No dismissals are expected over the large-scale collapse of the US air transport system, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said. On November 13, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop because of a communications failure in the air traffic control systems.
“I don’t think anyone will be fired over this. The problem was related to the equipment,” Mullin told Fox News, as cited by RBC. The secretary estimated that there was a 98% chance the outage was linked to the attempt to use, under modern conditions, an air traffic control system developed about 50 years ago.
Failure During a Network Upgrade
The nationwide shutdown lasted more than four hours. During that period, aircraft already in the air continued to land, but departures were restricted while authorities checked the safety of the systems. The ban was lifted on the evening of November 13.
According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the problem occurred during work to replace copper cables with fiber-optic lines, carried out by technology company L3Harris. A router failure overloaded other air traffic control systems and disrupted communications with aircraft. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, airlines canceled approximately 12,462 flights on November 13.
Duffy said that routers at FAA facilities in Arkansas and Texas were being inspected. It is still being determined whether the cause was human error, an installation problem, or a defect in the device itself.
Flights Return to Normal Operations
Federal authorities said there was no evidence that the outage had been caused by a cyberattack. Its effects, however, continued even after the systems were restored, as aircraft and crews had to be reassigned.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford warned that up to 5,000 canceled flights could remain on airline schedules on November 14, but he expected operations to return to a normal pace by the end of November 15. The Transportation Department is urging Congress to provide additional funding to modernize air traffic control infrastructure.
Sources: rbc.ru, apnews.com, axios.com