FAA Grounds Flights as Old System Overloaded with Data
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy explains data overload caused FAA ground stop, calls for modernization.
2 min read
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy provided an update hours after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a ground stop of all flights in the U.S., explaining that the “routers actually got overloaded with data” to the point where they were getting “inconsistency in the data” from the routers.
Old System Overloaded
During a press conference with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Duffy explained that the U.S. has “an incredibly old air traffic control system.” Duffy’s comments came after the FAA issued an alert stating that “BY ORDER OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION COMMAND CENTER ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED.”
“So, what happened? I’ve heard a lot of the rumors, like Markwayne has,” Duffy said. “But, what we have is an incredibly old air traffic control system. I think every single one of your networks have covered the President and myself talking about this for the last two years. The President, for the last year, has been asking Congress to fully fund a full build of a brand new air traffic control system.”
Call for Modernization
“So, we have TDM telecom. So, this is analog telecom,” Duffy continued. “Our switches, our routers actually got overloaded with data, and they went down. I shouldn’t say they went down. They started to give us inconsistency in the data from those routers, and because of that we shut the system down.”
Duffy continued to talk about how President Donald Trump has “asked the Congress on a bipartisan approach” to give the administration “the resources to build a state-of-the-art air traffic control system.”
“Let’s not do a patchwork, a fix to a system that’s critical for every single family,” Duffy continued. “It’s not red. It’s not blue. It’s not Democrat. It’s not Republican. It’s American. Give us the money to fix it.”
Outages and Funding Requests
While speaking, Duffy noted that “a year and a half ago” there were “outages in Newark” and expressed that this is a “continual problem.” Duffy also shared that he and Trump have “asked for $30 billion” and added that he wants $50 billion. Duffy noted that their “air traffic controllers have leaky roofs” and “air conditioning that doesn’t work.”
Mullin previously told reporters there was “no indication” that there had been a “nefarious attack” after the FAA grounded all flights in the U.S.
Source: Breitbart
