Washington: US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called on Congress to provide $50 billion to modernise the nation’s air traffic control system after a nationwide ground stop disrupted flights and stranded passengers across the country.
Duffy said at a late-night briefing on Friday (local time) that older communications equipment had become overloaded, causing inconsistent radar and communications data at facilities that manage aircraft around airports and across the country. He said officials were still examining precisely what triggered the failure.
The ground stop was lifted on Friday evening, but Duffy warned that flights would not immediately return to normal. Airlines would have to determine whether pilots and cabin crews were available, and some passengers might not reach their destinations until the following day, he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s command centre issued a notice cancelling the nationwide ground stop at 8:19 p.m. EST.
The transportation secretary said the disruption began at about 3:36 p.m. EST, when radar and communications became unstable at air traffic control centres and terminal radar approach facilities, known as TRACONs.
More than 3,500 aircraft were airborne when the disruption began, Duffy said. Controllers and pilots followed established procedures to bring aircraft down safely, he said, adding that radar and communications had not been completely lost.
Emergency medical, organ transport and law enforcement flights were allowed to continue, he said.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said investigators had found no evidence of a cyberattack at the time of the briefing but were continuing to examine the incident and had not ruled anything out. He said there was no connection with a separate Microsoft disruption.
Duffy attributed the problem to older switches and routers carrying telecommunications data. He said newer equipment that had been installed had not experienced the same failure. Officials had reduced the overload and brought affected facilities back online, he said.
Asked whether FAA work to patch a system had caused the outage, Duffy said no. He later cautioned that his team was still investigating the details and that he did not want to give incorrect information about the cause.
Duffy said Congress had already provided $12.5 billion for air traffic control modernisation but that further funding was needed to complete a broader overhaul. His call for $50 billion is a funding request, not an approved appropriation.
He said it would take time to replace the system and warned that further failures were possible while older equipment remained in use. He also said he expected operations to be back up as the busy Thanksgiving travel period approached.
Passengers should check the status of their flights with their airlines, Duffy said, as carriers work through the disruption.
(IANS)
