Here's the latest
• What went wrong: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it’s still unclear if aging equipment or contractor error was at the root of telecommunication outages that forced a rare nationwide ground stop yesterday. Duffy has criticized a key contractor, L3Harris, and blamed dated air traffic control technology, but the Trump administration has yet to provide a clear explanation for how the airspace meltdown unfolded.
• Travel misery: Thousands of travelers face lingering delays and cancellations today. Here’s a look at some of the most affected airports, what airlines are telling passengers, and what to do if your flight is impacted.
• Untangling the mess: Airlines are shuffling schedules for pilots and flight attendants and trying to clear their backlog of flights. “I do think the worst is behind us,” the FAA administrator said today, adding that he expects airlines to resume full schedules by the end of Sunday.
Updates
(51)Contractor L3Harris says it's supporting FAA in investigating cause of ground stop
L3Harris — the contractor that handled the procedure of replacing a copper wire with fiber, which likely caused the nationwide ground stop yesterday — said in a statement to CNN today that it is working with the Federal Aviation Administration to investigate the incident.
At a news conference earlier today, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy criticized L3Harris, though he said it’s unclear whether there was a contractor error or faulty equipment during the switch.
“Which begs the question for us: What did L3Harris do? Did they make mistakes yesterday?” Duffy told reporters. “They own this network. They’re our prime contractor. I can’t go somewhere else. They own it. Or was it a faulty router? And we’re going to find that out. And frankly, we’re going to hold people accountable.”
What airlines are telling passengers about today's persistent delays
Major US carriers are warning passengers that flight delays will continue as they deal with the backlog caused by yesterday’s rare nationwide ground stop.
Here’s what airlines have told passengers in recent updates:
American Airlines: The carrier is implementing fare caps, has added 1,750 seats through extra flights today, and is offering crews premium pay for certain flights as it scrambles to recover from Friday’s disruption.
American canceled 1,240 of its flights yesterday, the most of any airline, according to FlightAware. Many passengers are trying to resume their travel on rebooked itineraries today.
Delta: The airline encouraged customers to move their flights to Monday or later as it continues to restore operations.
Delta canceled the second-most flights Friday, with 1,169, creating a backlog of its own.
Southwest: The airline is offering a waiver to allow customers to cancel their flights or rebook them at a later date without penalty, it said this morning.
The carrier had the third-most cancellations yesterday at 1,167, according to FlightAware.
Dealing with your own travel nightmare? Here’s more on what to do if your flight is impacted.
Here are some of the US airports most affected by travel disruptions
Airports across the US and the globe are continuing to face disruptions, with thousands of flights scheduled for today being delayed or canceled as airlines work to clear the backlog.
Nearly 24 hours after the nationwide ground stop began, here are several of the US airports whose departures have been most affected, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.
- LaGuardia Airport in New York
- Tulsa International Airport in Oklahoma
- New York John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York
- Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Georgia
- New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport in Louisiana
- Chicago O’Hare International Airport in Illinois
- Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in Texas
- Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina
- Miami International Airport in Florida
Travel chaos lingers as officials investigate yesterday’s ground stop. Catch up here
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy this morning took questions and talked more about the circumstances that led to yesterday’s rare nationwide ground stop.
But question remain as it’s still unclear whether faulty equipment or contractor error was at the root of the telecommunication outages that forced the ground stop.
Catch up on the latest:
- What happened: The system outage was caused by an equipment error, said Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford at today’s news conference alongside Duffy. He and Duffy both emphasized again today that the outages do not appear to be caused by a cyberattack. And Duffy told reporters that the SMART system the department had deployed a few months ago was not responsible for the outages. Also, Bedford said that no air traffic control en route centers “actually went dark” yesterday, though as many as 17 of 22 facilities were affected.
- Pointing fingers: Duffy said today there could have been “mistakes made” by L3Harris — the defense contractor behind America’s leading air traffic surveillance system — during a routine procedure that led to the nationwide ground stop, adding that people will be held “accountable.” He said he is currently “stuck” with L3Harris.
- More explanations: Duffy said the upgrades made yesterday were necessary and that the nature of the switchover “was a remote location” and wasn’t expected to cause any malfunction. Bedford apologized to impacted travelers but maintained that “we did it for the right reasons.”
- Looking ahead: Bedford said he’s “very, very confident that the system is operating as safe today as it was two weeks ago,” and Duffy said earlier today on X “it is safe to fly.” But there is still some copper wiring connecting FAA systems across the country that needs to be replaced, and officials are working to identify where it is, according to the transportation secretary. He called on Congress for more investments into the aviation industry.
- Lingering travel chaos: Long lines, frustrated travelers and reshuffled plans prevail at airports across the country even after the ground stop was lifted and air traffic control centers resumed normal operations. As of this afternoon, more than 4,500 flights have been cancelled and 4,600 flights have been delayed within, into or out of the country today so far, according to the aviation tracking platform FlightAware. And an incoming storm moving into the Pacific Northwest could complicate flight operations even further in the region this evening.
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer, Isa Mudannayake, Catherine Nicholls, contributed reporting. Sydney Bishop, Auzinea Bacon, Tyler Ory and Paul Muntean contributed reporting.
American Airlines books crew on confirmed seats in scramble to recover from ground stop
American Airlines is guaranteeing seats to commuting crew members today instead of making them fly standby, according to an internal memo to pilots.
The airline is working to recover from yesterday’s nationwide ground stop.
American is also urging pilots to wait for updated schedules to be posted before booking flights to work so that it can ensure those flights have a full crew and are still operating, another indication of the scramble to get crews back into position.
Couple who spent night at LAX expresses frustrations: "Don't know who to blame"
John and Rosemary were on their way back home to Seattle from a trip to Fiji yesterday when the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop for all flights. Their flight from Los Angeles was canceled and then rebooked, and then “delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed, canceled, in that order,” John said.
“By that time, it was too late to get a hotel, so we sat right here all night, and it will be until 7:45 this evening,” John told CNN’s Leigh Waldman at the Los Angeles International Airport.
The couple were far from the only ones spending their night in the airport, Rosemary said, after tens of thousands of flights were canceled and delayed yesterday and today.
“This has been very frustrating,” Rosemary said. “I’m very tired, John’s very tired, and there’s no place to sleep other than on the floor of the airport. And there are people everywhere sleeping, because where else are you going to go?”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said today that either aging equipment or contractor error was at the root of telecommunication outages that forced the ground stop. John and Rosemary said it was frustrating that the infrastructure of such an important system hadn’t been properly maintained.
“I wish we could blame someone, but I don’t know who to blame,” John said. He later added: “Well, maybe our tax dollars aren’t really always going where they should. That’s all I got to say about that.”
A closer look at L3Harris, the tech firm behind the FAA’s communications system
L3Harris, the defense contractor behind America’s leading air traffic surveillance system, is under scrutiny following the Federal Aviation Administration’s ground stop and criticism from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
The FAA cited safety concerns related to a telecommunications outage for yesterday’s rare nationwide order. L3Harris manages the largest surveillance system, including more than 45,000 daily flights across the airspace system, and connects more than 4,400 facilities, according to the company.
L3Harris, which was founded in 2019, says it is currently working on modernizing the administration’s technology, with just 70% of sites upgraded from “decades-old copper wire connections” to high-speed networks. It also operates the FAA’s Data Comm program, which manages air traffic.
Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin have suggested updates to the FAA’s aging systems were behind the halt on flights, but Trump administration officials have yet to pinpoint whether contractor error or a faulty router was ultimately to blame.
L3Harris has not yet responded to CNN’s requests for comment.
“Our team’s deep knowledge of the U.S. national airspace allows us to upgrade systems without disrupting air traffic operations,” the company’s website says, adding that it coordinates with FAA staff “to ensure (air traffic) controllers have the connectivity they need.”
The Florida-based company, which also works with the Department of Defense, was responsible for upgrading the Boeing 747 jet gifted to President Donald Trump from Qatar. Former CEO Christopher Kubasik said the company was “deeply honored” to work on the Air Force One plane.
Kubasik was ousted from the role in August over conduct “not consistent” with company values, but wasn’t connected to L3Harris’ “financial reporting, controls, customer relationships or operational performance,” according to the company.
Shares of L3Harris (LHX) fell 3.82% on Friday in after-hours trading.
Scenes from the nation's airports as travelers try to get trips back on track
Long lines, frustrated travelers and reshuffled plans prevail at airports across the country this weekend as the impacts of a rare nationwide ground stop are still being felt.
Airlines are working to clear the backlog of flights as air traffic control centers resume normal operations, and the FAA administrator said today that he expects a full schedule to resume by the end of Sunday.
Speaker Mike Johnson says Democrats did not help fund FAA legislation
Speaker Mike Johnson credited Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and President Donald Trump on “sounding the alarms since the beginning,” about the nation’s outdated air traffic control systems.
Johnson said, “I tried to echo those alarms, we got about 12, almost $13 billion in the Big Beautiful Bill, the Working Families Tax Cut, to assist is sort of a down payment on that,” but the GOP majority could not get “any Democrats to assist, so we had to that only with Republican votes.”
Looking ahead, Johnson said that the House, Homeland Security and other committees will work to advance FAA during the final 50 days of the GOP majority.
“We don’t really need any investigation to understand we need further investment, Johnson said, “We’re going to work to get it done.”
Ole Miss football game against Oklahoma moved to Sunday
The nationwide ground stop forced the Southeastern Conference to move the game between No. 19 Ole Miss and Oklahoma, previously scheduled for this afternoon, to Sunday after Ole Miss was unable to make the trip to Norman, Oklahoma, last night.
“The Ole Miss football team was unable to depart Oxford Friday night due to the FAA ground stoppage,” the SEC said in a statement early this morning. “After the stoppage was lifted, a late-night departure could not be accommodated by the charter company with which Ole Miss was contracted and the team’s departure has been delayed until Saturday afternoon.”
The game will now be played on Sunday at noon CT (1 p.m. ET).
Oklahoma director of athletics Roger Denny issued a statement this morning voicing his frustration at the situation.
“After multiple conversations with the league office, (SEC) Commissioner Sankey informed us of his decision to move our game to Sunday, over our strong objection. After continued discussions, he further informed us that our failure to play on Sunday at the directed time would result in a forfeit.”
Like many other college towns in SEC country and across the nation, the entire week revolves around the Sooners game in the fall in Norman, and pushing the game back nearly 24 hours presents a logistical nightmare.
CNN has reached out to Ole Miss for any reaction to the situation.
Duffy says officials are working to identify remaining copper wires that need replacing
There are still copper wires connecting FAA systems across the country that need to be replaced, and officials are working to identify where they are, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
Yesterday, a contractor was replacing an old copper wire on a telecommunications system when an outage forced a rare nationwide ground stop.
Duffy said “over 70% of the copper has been transitioned to fiber,” but the work “doesn’t happen overnight.”
“You can’t lay fiber all over the country in a month. It’s going to take us time to do that. To deploy a new architecture, it doesn’t happen instantaneously,” he said today at a news conference, emphasizing workers are moving “fast and safely” on replacements.
Federal aviation administrator explains how system is architected
“There is no backup to the backup” when communication between routers is severed, Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford said at a news conference today from the Department of Transportation headquarters in Washington, DC.
At the heart of the problem is a decades-old telecommunications technology called Time Division Multiplexing, or TDM. Think of it as the technological equivalent of the dial-up internet era in a world that has long since moved on to high-speed fiber optics. Much of the FAA’s telecommunications infrastructure still relies on aging copper wires.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said newer equipment already installed by the FAA was not affected by Friday’s outage.
“This is a T1 line telephony infrastructure, hasn’t been in production for decades,” Bedford said. “We sustain it.”
Bedford said that sustainment process was happening in the remote location where according to Duffy, a contractor was doing maintenance to switch telecommunication lines from old copper wire to fiber.
Multiple log-on attempts overwhelmed one set of routers in a ground-based aviation service called an en route facility, Bedford said, “which then went to the backups at other en route facilities, and it propagated from there.”
Correction: An earlier version of this post misattributed a quote about the infrastructure. It was said by FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford.
No disruption expected to Sunday's NFL schedule
An NFL spokesperson tells CNN that the league expects “no impact” on Sunday’s Week 10 schedule from the nationwide FAA ground stop.
The league also said in a statement: “Due to the ongoing nationwide impact to air travel this weekend, the NFL has adjusted its officiating assignments for Week 10 games, reassigning officials to games within driving distance of their hometowns.”
Duffy says he has "demanded more" from contractor after routine procedure went wrong
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said today there could have been “mistakes made” by contractor L3Harris during a routine procedure that led to the nationwide ground stop, adding that people will be held “accountable.”
He went on to criticize other contractors that the department works with.
“Many of our contractors, many of our partners, they take our money and they provide really poor service to us. Full stop,” Duffy added. “And we have demanded more. We demanded better because the American people deserve better and we’re getting better performance from everyone who’s doing business with us now. We need L3Harris or whoever provided that router to us to do a better job.”
FAA administrator "very confident" system is operating safely
“I’m confident, very, very confident, that the system is operating as safe today as it was two weeks ago,” said Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford in a Saturday news conference.
Bedford said officials had expressed concern about potential security threats, especially after a global Microsoft outage left millions without email access earlier this week.
He and other FAA officials have maintained the ground stop was not caused by a cybersecurity threat.
Until the aging Flight Test Instrumentation system can be replaced, Bedford said, the FAA will continue to spend the money it takes to keep the system functioning.
“But let’s not kid ourselves; it will continue to break until we replace it,” he added.
"None of the facilities actually went dark," FAA chief says
During the events that led to yesterday’s nationwide ground stop, no air traffic control en route centers “actually went dark,” though as many as 17 of 22 facilities were affected, FAA chief Bryan Bedford said.
“None of the facilities actually went dark. What we had were random reports from different facilities of certain frequencies that were going in and out, and requiring them to switch between primaries and backup switching,” he said, responding to a question about what air traffic controllers were seeing before the ground stop was enacted.
“Now, if that had been a single facility, we would have just worked through it,” Bedford explained.
There are 22 air traffic control en route centers in the US.
CNN’s Pete Muntean contributed to this reporting.
Duffy says yesterday’s switchover “was a remote location” that was necessary for safety
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the upgrades made to aviation systems yesterday which malfunctioned and caused a ground stop were necessary.
“Safety is paramount. If we don’t make these upgrades, we have a less safe system. We can’t continue on technology of the 80s,” he said today at a news conference in response to a question regarding why the department chose to implement the new systems during such a busy flying time.
He continued: “We’re making transition not because we want to spend money. We’re making the transition because it’s safer and it’s more resilient.”
Duffy said the nature of yesterday’s switchover “was a remote location” and wasn’t expected to malfunction.
“These smaller locations don’t have that kind of impact or they shouldn’t have that kind of impact which is what we saw yesterday,” Duffy said.
He went on to say that there “will be be a reevaluation of when we do this work.”
"I'm stuck with L3Harris," Duffy criticizes key contractor
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he is currently “stuck” with contractor L3Harris after yesterday’s ground stop, having criticized the company in today’s news conference.
Issues that led to the ground stop were brought about after an upgrade carried out by L3Harris, which owns the “legacy telecom network,” Duffy explained.
“With our new architecture, with the money that we’re requesting, we will work with the greatest telecom companies in the world, which will be AT&T, Verizon, and Lumens,” he continued.
“They’re all working with us on the new architecture. But in the meantime, until I can build that, I’m stuck with L3Harris, who owns this network,” he said.
CNN has reached out to the L3Harris for more information.
Duffy: Recently deployed SMART system not the cause of outages
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters today that the SMART system the department had “deployed” a few months ago was not responsible for yesterday’s outages.
After Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford said there is “zero evidence” that the nationwide ground stop yesterday was caused by “anything AI related,” Duffy stressed that the department’s “tool,” called the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories, is not to blame.
"I do think the worst is behind us," federal aviation administrator says
Full schedule integrity is expected by the end of Sunday, Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford said today at a Department of Transportation news conference.
“As we went into Friday, we had 50,000 flights scheduled to operate. When we went into the ground stop at approximately 3:45 p.m. East Coast time yesterday, we had completed about 30,000 of those flights, either on the ground or in the air,” he said.
This left 20,000 more flights to complete over the course of the four-hour ground stop, Bedford continued.
Out of those 20,000 flights, the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration were able to recover 8,000, he said.
“We have crews and aircraft that are out of position for 12,000 flights that were lost,” Bedford said. “These crews, pilots and flight attendants need to get to their points of reconnection with their schedules.”
Bedford said they expect about 4,000 to 5,000 flights out of the 41,000 scheduled Saturday to be canceled.
“That will set us up for a full recovery tomorrow,” he said. “I do think the worst is behind us.”
