Trump Blames Biden for FAA Breakdown After 12,462 Flight Cancellations

3 articles · Updated · Quartz · Nov 15

12,462 flights were canceled after the FAA halted departures nationwide for nearly five hours on Nov. 13, with air traffic resuming at 8:15 p.m. ET and about 3,500 aircraft already airborne landing safely.
1,000 connection attempts every 4 to 5 seconds swamped the FAA's legacy network, destabilizing equipment; investigators traced the initial problem to sites in Amarillo, Texas, and El Dorado, Arkansas.
L3Harris had been deploying a new router at the Arkansas radio site, but Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said officials still have not determined whether contractor error or a faulty router triggered the data flood.
Trump on Sunday used the disruption to fault the Biden administration for worsening an "old and broken" system and pressed Congress to provide funding quickly for air traffic control upgrades.
$12.5 billion has been provided for modernization, though FAA officials said the outage hit older telecommunications infrastructure outside that program; nationwide ground stops are rare, with the last major one in January 2023.