Replacing old copper wire behind FAA's nationwide ground stop, Duffy says

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told a press conference that the nationwide ground stop ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday, November 13, was related to work at a remote FAA facility. There, outdated copper wire was being replaced with a fiber optic line. The problem disrupted the air traffic control system, including radar feeds and communication with aircraft.

Duffy described the work as routine maintenance rather than part of a major modernization effort. He said the wire was so old that it was being discontinued, meaning the line would be shut down, which made the upgrade necessary.

Root cause still unclear

The secretary acknowledged that the underlying cause has not been established. He listed three possibilities: faulty hardware, a misconfigured router, or "incompetence" on the part of contractor L3Harris. Whatever the reason, the newly installed router then "flooded" other routers in the air traffic control system. Duffy said there were over 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds.

Call for funding

Duffy also used the occasion to urge Congress to provide additional funding for modernizing the air traffic control system. He said the FAA is building safely but quickly, yet Congress had given him only a "partial payment" to finish the necessary work.

L3Harris statement

In a statement, L3Harris said that, together with its telecom partners and the FAA, it has completed more than 70% of the planned conversion of airspace communications from legacy copper wires to a fiber optic system. The company said it is supporting the FAA's investigation into the conditions that led to the November 13 ground stop, and that it takes the stoppage and its impact on travelers, airlines and air traffic operations seriously.