Transportation secretary doesn’t apologize after FAA nationwide ground stop strands travelers
Duffy rejects calls to apologize
Speaking Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the ground stop happened during his tenure but that he could not apologize for the system he inherited. He said previous administrations had not done enough to modernize air traffic control.
Duffy said responsibility for the system’s condition did not belong to one political party. He said he and President Donald Trump would work to fix it.
Router issue disrupted communications
The resulting communications disruption led to Friday’s nationwide ground stop and left hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded across the country. Duffy said planes and flight crews were left out of position.
Future disruptions remain uncertain
Duffy said he expected operations to return to normal by the end of Saturday or into Sunday. He did not guarantee that a similar travel disruption would not happen again. He said officials would determine the root cause and then make changes to how the FAA conducts its work.
Key points
- Duffy declined to apologize for Friday’s nationwide FAA ground stop.
- He blamed previous administrations for not doing enough to modernize air traffic control.
- Duffy attributed the disruption to a router overwhelmed during work on a line at a remote site.
- He said he could not guarantee that a similar disruption would not happen again.