“We see zero evidence of anything nefarious, and zero evidence of anything AI related,” said Bryan Bedford, who heads the Federal Aviation Administration.
A nationwide US ground stop that caused thousands of flight cancellations was triggered by an issue following a copper wire upgrade, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said. The disruption forced the suspension of flights for more than four hours starting at around 16:00 EST on Friday, marking the longest such incident since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
More than 3,500 flights were cancelled and over 2,000 others were delayed on Saturday alone, according to tracking website FlightAware, as authorities warned that ripple effects would last for days. Maintenance work was being carried out by a technology provider called L3Harris to switch aging infrastructure from copper wire to fibre, Duffy said.
“It was such an old wire that it was being discontinued,” Duffy told a news conference, adding that the United States has an incredibly old telecommunications system. He explained that a router undergoing maintenance began flooding other air traffic control systems, creating severe communication issues with aircraft that forced the government to shut down the airspace.
The US government does not believe the incident stemmed from a cyberattack, though an investigation remains under way. Officials are trying to determine whether the failure resulted from equipment defects or contractor incompetence.
On Saturday, L3Harris stated that it had completed over 70% of the work required to modernise the communications infrastructure before the shutdown occurred. “We are supporting the FAA in its investigation to understand the conditions that led to the 13 November ground stop of our nation’s air travel,” the company said in a statement, adding that it takes the incident and its impact on operations seriously.
