US flight disruptions expected to continue until Sunday
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a faulty router and maintenance issues following nationwide communication failures.
Air travel across the United States is expected to return to normal by late Sunday following widespread communication failures at air traffic control centres, according to the Times of India. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has linked the disruption to maintenance on a telecommunications network and a router that may be defective.
The issue was reportedly caused by work performed by contractor L3Harris to replace old copper wiring with fibre-optic infrastructure. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said officials are investigating if the problem stemmed from a faulty router or errors made by the contractor during the process.
The disruption affected 17 of the 22 en route air traffic control centres. Transportation Secretary Duffy stated that the router issue caused a data overload, resulting in over 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds, which impacted radar and communication with aircraft.
Flight-tracking website FlightAware reported that as of 6:45 pm ET on Saturday, airlines had cancelled more than 6,150 flights and delayed over 7,300. This followed a Friday where approximately 9,200 flights were cancelled after the FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop.
FAA chief Bryan Bedford said the ground stop was a precaution after multiple facilities reported issues, though he noted that no facility lost communication entirely. Bedford apologised to passengers and said the system is now stable.
While the White House examined the possibility of a cyberattack, both Duffy and Bedford stated there is no evidence of malicious activity or interference.
