The United States on Friday lifted an hours-long ground stop at its airports. Top officials said the disruption was caused by old equipment, not by a cyberattack or a sweeping Microsoft outage.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told a late-night briefing at the White House that US airspace had been “opened up” at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time. He warned, however, that the travel chaos would take time to clear and that flights would be slow to resume.
Duffy points to aging air traffic control hardware
The breakdown came a day after Duffy and the White House formally asked Congress for $30 billion to upgrade and modernize the US Air Traffic Control System. Duffy said switches and routers had been overloaded with data and had failed, describing the problem as involving old hardware.
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He asked the American public whether they wanted Congress to fund the upgrade. Duffy also insisted that it was still safe for Americans to fly.
Homeland Security sees no sign of cyber attack
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin dismissed speculation about a coordinated cyber assault on the United States. He also rejected any link to the Microsoft outage that had affected services worldwide.
Mullin said there was “actually no cyber attack”. He added that there was no chatter and no footprints suggesting one, noting that attackers usually claim responsibility.
Mullin said US security and law enforcement agencies were still checking and had not ruled anything out. He also defended President Donald Trump, who had not yet commented on the halt about five hours after it began. Mullin said Trump had immediately gathered people in his office and that officials were communicating.
