FAA Grounds U.S. Flights Nationwide After Router Failure
The FAA grounded U.S. departures nationwide for over four hours after a router issue, delaying nearly 1,400 flights.
Flight disruptions lingered two days after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded departures nationwide for more than four hours, according to CNBC. Nearly 1,400 U.S. flights were delayed as of 7 a.m. ET, per FlightAware data cited by CNBC. Airlines waived change fees and fare differences and offered pilots and flight attendants extra pay to ease the delays.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed the issue on a router that overwhelmed systems feeding radar and other data for air traffic control, and said the work involved updating from copper wires to a fiber-optic system overseen by L3Harris Technologies, according to CNBC. FAA administrator Bryan Bedford described the upgrades as part of routine maintenance to switch over to fiber optic.
Duffy pushed Congress for as much as $50 billion for upgrades to the aging U.S. air traffic control system, CNBC reported. Democratic lawmakers pushed back a day later, citing unspent money from existing funding, including Congress's approval last year of $12.5 billion for airport and air traffic control improvements over five years, according to the same report.
L3Harris said in a statement Saturday afternoon that it is supporting the FAA in its investigation to understand the conditions that led to the Nov. 13 ground stop, CNBC reported. The ground stop was the longest since Sept. 11, 2001, according to CNBC.
The FAA halted all departures into U.S. airports during the event, and airlines scrambled to get travelers and crews back into place over the weekend, CNBC reported. The disruption followed a nationwide ground stop ordered Friday, with more than 9,200 cancellations recorded that day, according to CNBC.
In delayed trading, L3Harris (LHX) was up 0.19%.