US Air Travel Resumes After Nationwide Outage as Trump Blames Outdated Equipment

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lifted a nationwide ban on flights that took effect on 13 November and halted departures from all airports in the country. US President Donald Trump attributes the disruption to the FAA's outdated equipment and says he does not believe a cyberattack or artificial intelligence was involved.

Trump: nobody has claimed responsibility

According to a journalist who spoke to Trump by phone, with remarks cited by Axios and Fox News, the president does not think the incident resembles a cyberattack. He said no one has taken responsibility, which would be typical if someone had really carried out such a large attack on critical infrastructure. Trump stressed that the FAA relies on a large amount of old, faulty equipment to keep flights running, and that some of it is about 55 years old.

Transportation secretary calls for more funding

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the flight ban was issued after outdated air traffic control communications equipment was overloaded with data and failed. He urged Congress to increase funding for modernising the air traffic control system. Trump said replacing the old equipment had already been discussed with Congress, but the changes have still not been carried out.

The ultimate cause of the large-scale outage is not yet known, and an investigation is under way.

Background

On 13 November, the United States suspended departures of all flights citing extraordinary circumstances and safety reasons. The FAA explained that departures were halted at all airports nationwide because the failure affected several en-route air traffic control centres at once. Reuters notes this is the second time since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks that all departures were suspended across the US. Later, US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the grounding of all flights was caused by a telecommunications failure, not a terrorist threat similar to the 11 September attacks.