All Flights Grounded: What Happened to Air Traffic Control
All flights grounded across America for more than four hours on Friday after a communications failure hit every air traffic control center. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy now wants $50 billion, rumors spread about a weather radar outage, and Amtrak's ticket system went down the same night. Here is what happened and what it means for your money and your business.
Tonight's Rundown
- Video.The White House Briefing: Duffy and Mullin
- Open.Every Departing Flight, Grounded
- I.What Went Wrong
- II.Duffy Wants $50 Billion
- III.The Radar Outage That Wasn't
- IV.Amtrak's Booking System Went Down Too
- V.What It Means for Your Business
- VI.Tonight's Sponsors
The White House Briefing on the Ground Stop
Every Departing Flight in America, Grounded
The facts
- When: about 3:54 PM to 8:15 PM Eastern on Friday.
- Why: the FAA cited communication issues at its Air Route Traffic Control Centers.
- The damage: more than 4,000 flights canceled and about 10,000 delayed.
- Overseas: Eurocontrol held US-bound departures from its 42 member countries at the FAA's request.
- Rare: only the second nationwide shutdown since the September 11 attacks, per Reuters.
Sources: FAA · CNBC · Flightradar24 · Reuters via US News · CNN live updates
A Communications Failure at Every Control Center
The facts
- Duffy: a communication issue hit all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.
- CBS sources: an update to the private network that links air traffic control forced a reboot, then a crash.
- The network: the Wall Street Journal reported it is the one overseen by L3Harris.
- Mullin: "zero evidence" it was a cyberattack.
- Not linked: officials said it was not tied to Thursday's Microsoft outage.
Sources: CBS News · Al Jazeera · Northeastern · ABC News
Duffy Wants $50 Billion to Rebuild Air Traffic Control
The facts
- The ask: $50 billion in emergency funding from Congress.
- Before: his earlier ask was more than $30 billion.
- Already approved: $12.5 billion over five years, passed last year.
- Duffy's blame: outdated switches and overloaded routers.
- Mullin: it "has to be a complete overhaul of the system."
The Weather Radar Outage That Wasn't
The facts
- Earlier: the NWS warned of internet and communications problems on its websites.
- The rumor: an old "National Radar Outage" page spread online with no date on it.
- The NWS: radar.weather.gov is fully operational and radars are working normally.
- Real but small: a regional problem with weather radios, not a national one.
Amtrak's Booking System Went Down the Same Night
The facts
- Down: Amtrak's website, app and kiosk ticket sales on Friday evening.
- Amtrak: trains are running normally, with higher demand.
- Phones: the support line cited "unusually high call volume."
- Unknown: Amtrak has not given a cause or a time for a fix.
Sources: FOX 5 · CBS New York · Fox News
What a Day Like This Means for Your Business
Three checks
- Plan B: if your work depends on one flight, one supplier or one system, write down your backup now.
- Your coverage: ask whether your policy covers lost income when someone else's system goes down.
- Your customers: when the big systems fail, the business that answers the phone wins.
Tonight's Sponsors
- DJH & Co: websites and marketing for home-service contractors. djhandco.com
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