FAA expects U.S. flight schedules to recover by Sunday after nationwide ground stop

Federal aviation officials said U.S. air travel should be back on schedule by the end of Sunday, two days after a nationwide ground stop of more than four hours, according to WHYY and Spotlight PA. Both outlets described it as the longest such stoppage in 25 years.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters Saturday that delays and cancellations would continue that day, but that the "worst is behind us," both outlets reported.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the trouble started while a contractor was swapping a section of the air traffic control system's old copper wiring for fiber, and that the work somehow overloaded the system. That led to intermittent communication and radar gaps. Spotlight PA identified the contractor as L3Harris Technologies, which said it was helping the FAA investigate. Duffy said officials were examining whether contractor "incompetence" or a faulty router was to blame. "Our contractor didn't meet the moment," he said, according to both outlets. CBS Philadelphia reported that the FAA does not believe a cyberattack caused the stop.

Cancellation counts varied. Spotlight PA cited FlightAware as reporting more than 5,100 canceled flights within, into or out of the U.S. on Saturday. WHYY cited FlightAware at more than 4,100 and the tracking site Cirium at more than 3,200.

More than 3,000 planes in the air when the order was issued landed safely. Spotlight PA attributed that statement to Duffy, while WHYY attributed it to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

Aviation consultant Andrew Charlton estimated that the stoppage affected about a quarter of the roughly 45,000 daily U.S. flights, the outlets reported. The disruption also reached London's Heathrow Airport, WHYY said.

According to WHYY, Duffy blamed Congress for not approving more money to replace aging equipment and said more outages could happen. He said the failure involved old equipment, not the FAA's new AI-based system. Congress approved $12.5 billion for the overhaul last year, and the administration is seeking $30 billion more, both outlets reported.

The stop was the first nationwide halt since a January 2023 failure of an FAA pilot-notice system, and the second since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

CBS Philadelphia reported that Philadelphia International Airport was slowly returning to normal, with travelers still facing lingering effects.

Sports schedules also shifted. 6abc reported that No. 19 Mississippi's football game at Oklahoma was moved to Sunday, several college games were pushed back hours, and the Cleveland Cavaliers flew out of Miami on the morning of their Saturday game.

Compiled by True News from reporting by CBS Philadelphia, Spotlight PA, 6abc Action News and WHYY. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/1072