Duffy Points Finger At Contractor After Nationwide Ground Stop
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Saturday suggested an FAA contractor might be to blame for Friday’s telecommunications outage, which grounded flights nationwide and led to thousands of cancellations.
Speaking at a press briefing at Transportation Department headquarters, Duffy said that “in at least one of our remote FAA locations, a contractor was doing routine maintenance to switch telecommunication lines from old copper wire, and they were bringing it over to fiber.”
“That contractor that does the work for us is L3Harris. They’re our legacy provider,” Duffy said, adding that officials are still trying to figure out what went wrong. “Was it user error or installation error from L3Harris, or did they install a faulty router? We haven’t determined what the fault was.”
Duffy also dismissed speculation that the outage was a cyberattack. “Once we were able to isolate the work that was being done at this remote location, all of our systems came back online,” he said. “So we don’t believe this was cyber at all.”
“This was an FAA system that didn’t meet the moment,” he added. “A contractor didn’t meet the moment, or the equipment didn’t meet the moment and caused the outages.”
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Trump Puts Blame On Biden Administration For Nationwide Ground Stop
Nearly 48 hours after the nationwide ground stoppage Friday, President Donald Trump said Congress needs to give the Federal Aviation Administration more money because the Biden administration “set it back years.”
“If Congress approves the desperately needed money for Air Traffic Control, we can get it built quickly and efficiently,” Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social. “It will be the BEST SYSTEM anywhere in the World. Much of our current air control system is 50 years old - RIDICULOUS! We have already started the work, but it should be done all at once, not in drips and drabs. Congress must approve. The Biden Administration set it back years! President DJT”
Sean Duffy: 'All I Need Is The Money!'
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy went on a press tour Sunday morning following the nationwide ground stop on Friday, saying that he shouldn’t have to say he’s sorry and he just needs more money to fix the issues.
“I can’t apologize for what was passed off to us,” Duffy said.
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Trump Offers Little Public Response More Than 24 Hours After Nationwide Ground Stop
More than 24 hours after the FAA issued a nationwide ground stop on Friday, President Donald Trump has yet to issue a public statement or address the American people about the major disruption in air travel.
The nationwide ground stop halted nearly every flight for several hours, and its effects are still being felt at airports around the country on Saturday.
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Trump Wants Executions Of California Death Row Inmates To Continue
President Donald Trump couldn’t contain his bloodlust Saturday when he called for the executions of California’s death row inmates to continue.
“Gavin Newscum’s halting the Death Penalty for all 563 California Death Row inmates, some of the worst cold blooded murderers to have ever lived on the face of the Earth, is a disaster for Justice in America,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The president was referring to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to commute the sentences of more than 500 people awaiting the death penalty in the state.
“By every measure, California’s system for administering the death penalty is a failure,” Newsom wrote of his decision earlier this month. “It has not been and cannot be fairly applied and has resulted in the conviction of innocent people.”
Duffy Says Flights Are ‘Slowly Returning To Normal’ After Nationwide Ground Stop
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday morning that air travel is recovering, but warned that travelers “will continue to see some delays and cancellations as carriers reschedule flights and reposition aircraft/crews.”
In a post on X, he wrote: “Planes are pushing back, taxiing, and taking off, and it is safe to fly.”
He also urged travelers to check with their airlines and nasstatus.faa.gov for updates.
On Friday, Duffy blamed an outdated air traffic control system whose routers “got overloaded with data,” and called on Congress to fund upgrades to the nation’s air traffic control system.
He is scheduled to hold another press briefing at 10:30 a.m. ET.
HR Platform Workday Still Experiencing Outage Reports
Workday, the business software company that handles human resources management for companies, is still reporting issues on Saturday after a widespread outage Friday evening.
As of 8:09 a.m. ET, 478 reports remained active, according to Downdetector,
The issue occurred while testing disaster recovery and backup systems, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Thousands of companies use Workday for various HR tasks. Affected users were unable to access pay info, request time off, or enroll in benefits.
Thousands Of Flights Canceled, Travelers Stranded After FAA Ground Stop Friday
Thousands of flights remain canceled or delayed after a reported failure in the Federal Aviation Administration’s aging communications system grounded departures across the U.S. on Friday.
By Saturday morning, more than 3,556 flights within, into, or out of the U.S. were canceled, according to flight data tracker FlightAware.
As of 8:15 a.m. ET, Delta Air Lines canceled 20% of its flights, United Airlines canceled 17% of its flights, Southwest Airlines canceled 9% of its flights, and American Airlines canceled 15% of its flights slated for today.
Buttigieg Weighs In On FAA Ground Stop At Denver Conference
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke to reporters amid the FAA’s nationwide ground stop at the What’s Next conference in Denver, Colorado.
Buttigieg, who served as transportation secretary during the Biden administration, was asked how this could happen.
“The system has many redundancies in it, so that normally, if there’s one point of failure, something else can catch it,” he said. “It was not clear to me why that redundancy did not prevent an outage of this magnitude.”
He also spoke directly to Republican critics of his tenure.
“We did a lot to upgrade the system. When we had an outage, I didn’t stand there complaining about the Trump administration.”
“This should not be about politics,” he continued. “What I will say, of course, is that there needs to be answers, and there needs to be transparency about what happened.”