📰 Newspapers

'Check, one two': Tech glitch hits US presser on air travel chaos

'Check, one two': Tech glitch hits US presser on air travel chaos

Trump administration officials were left red-faced Saturday when their public effort to address the massive tech disruption that grounded thousands of US flights was itself hit with embarrassing technical glitches.

Trump administration officials were left red-faced Saturday when their public effort to address the massive tech disruption that grounded thousands of US flights was itself hit with embarrassing technical glitches.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy took the podium and began addressing a much-anticipated and televised press conference a day after a disastrous nationwide ground stop across US airspace -- one blamed on aging technology -- when a deep, echoing hum began to emanate from the microphones and speakers.

"Check one two, three four, five six seven?" Duffy said into the mic.

As cameras rolled, he paused, looked around, and stepped away.

"(I) apologize for that," he said, as technicians scrambled to replace microphones and adjust cables.

Duffy soon resumed, but brittle feedback hit the room seconds later and his demeanor shifted, presumably all-too-aware that the symbolism of an on-camera tech meltdown after such a major flight disruption was not going unnoticed.

"This is not operational? OK," said Duffy, appearing deeply irritated. "This is our kind of, uh, day."

Duffy was speaking to reporters with the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Bryan Bedford, and, ironically, with the FAA's chief technology…

In brief

Trump administration officials were left red-faced Saturday when their public effort to address the massive tech disruption that grounded thousands of US flights was itself hit with embarrassing technical glitches. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy took the podium and began addressing a much-anticipated and televised press conference a day after a disastrous nationwide ground stop across US airspace -- one blamed on aging technology -- when a deep, echoing hum began to emanate from the microphones and speakers. "Check one two, three four, five six seven? OK," said Duffy, appearing deeply irritated.

This is the opening of the story, shared with credit to Citizen Digital. The rest of the report — with every detail — continues on the publisher’s website.

Continue reading at Citizen Digital ↗

Cookie settings

Choose which cookies we may use. You can change this at any time from Cookie settings in the footer. Details of each cookie are in the Cookie Policy.

Strictly necessary

Needed for sign-in, security, payments and remembering these choices. Always on.

Preferences

Remember settings such as dark mode.

Analytics & performance

Help us count visits, understand which pages, devices and countries our readers use, and measure how well the site performs – anonymous and aggregated.

Advertising & marketing

Lets advertising partners show and personalise adverts, measure impressions, clicks and visits, prevent ad fraud and pay us – this is how the free site is funded.

🔔 News notifications

Get headlines from NewsHub on this device — even when the site is closed.

You can switch this off at any time. Works on Android, Windows, Mac and Linux browsers; on iPhone/iPad add the site to your Home Screen first.