FAA Ground Stop Proves Risks of Aging Telecom Network, Duffy Says

Outage Disrupted Flights Nationwide

The FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop Friday after a telecommunications outage that officials attributed to overloaded routers. Thousands of flights were canceled, leaving travelers stranded and disrupting airport operations at the start of the weekend.

Duffy said aircraft and crews were left out of position. He said airlines would need time to restore coordinated operations and return to full capacity.

Maintenance Work Under Review

FAA contractor L3Harris Technologies had carried out maintenance at a remote facility, replacing aging copper communications lines with fiber-optic connections. During the changeover, a router began sending excess traffic to other routers, overloading the system.

Duffy said officials were investigating whether the installation work or the router itself caused the outage. He said the maintenance was performed appropriately and had been done thousands of times without a similar incident. Work at large facilities is usually scheduled overnight, while remote sites may be serviced during the day because the historical risk was considered low.

Duffy Calls For Modernization

Duffy said the outage highlights the need to replace the old telecom architecture with a new system. He noted that institutions and companies around the world have shifted to digital and fiber networks.

On Friday, Duffy said the FAA needed $50 billion from Congress for a network overhaul. On Sunday, he renewed that request, saying Congress had set specific rules for spending funds allocated through the One Big Beautiful Bill.

In a Truth Social post, Duffy said much of the air control system was 50 years old and argued the work should be completed all at once rather than in stages. He said the FAA had begun upgrades and asked Congress to approve the funding.