Telecom Outage Disrupts US Flights Nationwide

A telecommunications outage affecting the United States’ air traffic control system forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to suspend flight departures nationwide for more than four hours. The agency announced the lifting of the ground stop at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, November 13 (01:15 GMT on Saturday, November 14). The order had been imposed at 3:54 p.m. Eastern Time. Although departures resumed after the restriction was lifted, airlines faced continuing delays and cancellations as they worked to reposition aircraft and crews and reorganize disrupted schedules.

According to flight-tracking service FlightAware, more than 10,000 flights within, into and out of the United States were delayed, while more than 4,000 were canceled. CBS News cited these figures in its coverage. FlightRadar24 reported that 4,042 aircraft heading towards US airports were already airborne when the ground stop was issued.

The FAA said in a post on X that a temporary telecommunications outage had prompted the precautionary suspension of all departures. International flights would be handled on a case-by-case basis, the agency added. The communications problem affected all 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers across the country. These centers play a critical role in coordinating aircraft movements and maintaining communication between pilots and air traffic controllers.

Security threat or technical failure?

US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters there was no indication that the ground stop had been triggered by a threat to the United States. He said everyone was safe and authorities had accounted for every flight. “This is not another 9/11,” he said. President Donald Trump had also been briefed on the incident.

Asked whether the disruption could be linked to the rollout of a new artificial intelligence tool designed to assist air traffic controllers, Mullin said officials had not ruled out any possibility. Investigators were working to establish what had happened, he added.

Bloomberg, citing an official, reported that the FBI did not believe a cyberattack or criminal activity had caused the outage. Investigators were examining whether a software update might have contributed to the disruption, but the cause had not yet been determined.

Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth called for a thorough and comprehensive investigation into the FAA's communications failure. In a post on X, she said aviation safety depended on layers of safeguards and that the nationwide ground stop required a full investigation, regardless of its cause. As the ranking member of the Senate Aviation Subcommittee, she said she would demand answers from the FAA.

Ageing infrastructure and questions over AI

The disruption has highlighted the pressures facing the US air traffic control system, which has been struggling with equipment failures, communications problems and staffing shortages among controllers. The FAA has been working to replace and modernize ageing infrastructure. However, questions emerged over whether its new AI-powered system had any connection to the nationwide shutdown. The system's developer, Air Space Intelligence (ASI), denied responsibility.

ASI said its technology was not responsible for the nationwide ground stop. In a statement on X, the company said the shutdown was not based on or caused by its SMART system, any of its products, or its integration work with the FAA and air traffic control.

In June, the FAA awarded ASI an $875 million contract to develop and deploy the SMART system. On November 10, just days before the nationwide flight disruption, the agency announced plans to expand the system across all 22 air traffic control centers. The timing prompted questions about a possible connection, although ASI maintained that its technology had no role in the incident.

Rail services face additional pressure

The disruption to air travel also placed additional pressure on customer services at Amtrak, the US national passenger rail service. The company said its website and mobile app were displaying error messages and that customers were having difficulty reaching representatives. The surge in calls, driven by the nationwide aviation disruption, had pushed call volumes above normal levels. Amtrak advised customers to try again later.

Kyle Bailey, a pilot and former representative of the FAA's safety team, told Al Jazeera that experts and non-experts alike were still trying to piece together the available information. A reliable explanation was unlikely to emerge within just a few hours, he said. Bailey described the incident as deeply concerning and suggested that Amtrak could also be affected.

He said keeping flights on the ground was the safest course until authorities understood what was happening. Anyone claiming at an early stage to know the cause of the problem, he added, was not being honest.

More funding sought for modernization

Congress approved $12.5 billion last year for reforms to the US air traffic control system. On Friday, the Transportation Department and the White House sought an additional $30.1 billion from lawmakers. The funding request is aimed at modernizing ageing infrastructure and strengthening the capacity of the country's air traffic control network.

The latest incident is the first nationwide ground stop since a critical FAA computer system failed in January 2023. Before that, the last nationwide suspension of all US flight departures followed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Although the FAA has lifted the ground stop, authorities have yet to establish the precise cause of the telecommunications outage. The incident has renewed debate over the reliability of one of the world's busiest aviation systems, the risks posed by ageing technology and the availability of backup communications during emergencies.

//DBTech/BTONPR/SCDE/FOED//