Flights across the United States resumed after the Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop, as President Donald Trump said the sweeping system failure appeared to stem from outdated FAA equipment rather than a cyberattack or artificial intelligence malfunction.
Trump made the remarks by phone to a journalist, according to reports by Axios and Fox News. "He says it does not seem like this is a cyberattack or AI or anything like that. I asked him a couple different ways, and he said it doesn't seem like that, and that is the first thing that they always look for," the journalist said.
"He said instead, this seems to be a situation where there's a bunch of old broken stuff in the infrastructure that the FAA relies on to keep planes in the sky," the journalist added, noting that Trump described some of the equipment as 55 years old and in need of continued operation.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy offered a similar explanation, saying the ground stop had been ordered after outdated air traffic control communications equipment became overloaded with data and failed. Duffy urged Congress to increase funding to modernise the air traffic control system.
Trump said replacing the outdated equipment had already been discussed with Congress, but the necessary changes had yet to be implemented.
The exact cause of the widespread system failure remains unknown and will be determined by an investigation. Although the ground stop has been lifted, many flights continue to be delayed, and major disruption persists at airports across the country.
The ground stop was imposed on 13 November, when all flight departures across the US were suspended due to what officials described as extraordinary circumstances and reasons for safety. The FAA said the nationwide halt was ordered because the system failure affected several en-route air traffic control centres simultaneously.
Reuters noted that it was only the second time all flight departures had been suspended nationwide in the United States since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.
US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin later said the nationwide suspension of flights had been caused by a telecommunications failure rather than a terrorist threat similar to the September 11 attacks.
