WASHINGTON: Airlines canceled thousands of flights across the US on Saturday as they worked to recover from a nationwide ground stop a day earlier that left passengers scrambling for seats and disrupted travel around the world.
The US air travel schedule should be back to normal by the end of Sunday, two days after what was the nation’s longest ground stop in 25 years, Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters in Washington on Saturday. He said airlines “will still have delays and cancelations” Saturday but promised that the “worst is behind us.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the problem began when contractor L3Harris Technologies Inc. was replacing a section of the air traffic control system’s old copper wire with new fiber wire, somehow causing the system to overload. The work led to “intermittent” communications and radar gaps, prompting the government to shut down air traffic for more than four hours.
Duffy said officials were investigating whether contractor “incompetence” or a faulty router was the cause. “Our contractor didn’t meet the moment or the equipment didn’t meet the moment,” he added.
L3Harris said it was supporting the FAA in its investigation to “understand the conditions” that led to the ground stop.
“L3Harris takes the nationwide ground stop and its impact on travelers, airlines and air traffic operations seriously,”