Repair of old copper wiring caused US flight disruption

Detailed summary

Weary travelers braced for more flight disruptions Saturday as service resumed from US airports after an hours-long stoppage that the Trump ...

NEW YORK: Weary travelers braced for more flight disruptions Saturday as service resumed from US airports after an hours-long stoppage that the Trump administration blamed on faulty equipment or an error by a contractor tasked with switching out old copper wire communication lines. Friday’s nationwide ground stop sparked widespread chaos and left hundreds of thousands of passengers in limbo, with some pulled off planes moments before departure by airline staff who appeared in the dark about unfolding events.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday’s four-hour ground stop was declared after maintenance work to upgrade an old copper wire to a high-speed fiber cable had caused “issues” with communication with airplanes and radar feeds.

“Either through contractor error or a faulty piece of equipment...it started flooding other routers in our air traffic control system,” Duffy told reporters.

Friday’s disruption was only the second time such a ground stoppage had been issued in US airspace since the 9/11 attacks. The nationwide halt was lifted at 8:15 pm Eastern Time (0115 GMT Saturday). During the outage, footage from airports showed gates full, with planes waiting on taxiways and passengers thronging concourses, desperate for information. – AFP

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