FAA contractors are analyzing two routers from facilities in Arkansas and Texas following a fiber upgrade that led to a nationwide ground stop, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Sunday. The issue began Friday when L3Harris Technologies, a contractor for the FAA, installed new fiber wiring to replace older copper wiring at a facility in El Dorado, Arkansas.
After the upgrade, turning on the router in El Dorado triggered a system overload, which then affected equipment at an FAA site in Amarillo, Texas. This escalation grounded flights across the United States, disrupting air traffic for hours. In a statement posted on the social media platform X, Duffy reported that L3Harris retrieved the routers and is conducting "deep diagnostics" to determine the cause of the failure.
Speaking on ABC’s *This Week*, Duffy expressed confusion about the cascade effect. "We didn’t think that should or would happen," he said. He also assured travelers that while residual delays continued into Sunday, the system should be operating at full capacity by Monday.
During an interview with CBS’s *Face the Nation*, Duffy explained how such ground delays ripple through the airline system, requiring time for planes and crews to return to scheduled operations. "It takes a little bit of time for the airliners to get back at full capacity and operation, but we’re well on our way," he said.
President Donald Trump also addressed the ground-stop event, using it to call for additional funding for the nation’s air traffic control system. On his social media platform, Trump urged Congress to provide the resources necessary to modernize the decades-old system. "If Congress approves the desperately needed money for Air Traffic Control, we can get it built quickly and efficiently," Trump wrote. "It will be the BEST SYSTEM anywhere in the World. Much of our current air control system is 50 years old – RIDICULOUS!"
The Republican-controlled Congress previously allocated $12.5 billion to the FAA as part of the broader tax cut package passed last year, but Duffy called it only a "down payment" on the full overhaul needed. Trump criticized the air traffic control legacy of his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, claiming that the system's aging infrastructure has worsened.
Biden, however, signed an infrastructure bill early in his presidency that designated $25 billion to FAA improvements. According to the FAA, those funds aim to modernize air traffic control towers, upgrade system infrastructure, and improve airports across the country.
Sunday’s efforts to address system disruptions came amid lingering frustration and delays for passengers throughout the weekend. Officials said they expect normal operations to return as quickly as possible in the coming days.