Faulty equipment blamed by Trump administration for FAA ground stop. Follow for live updates.

Summary

• U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated that faulty equipment in an "incredibly old" telecommunication system caused a nationwide ground stop after a contractor attempted to upgrade copper wire to fiber optic cable.
• Officials are investigating whether the outage resulted from user incompetence, installation errors by contractor L3 Harris, or a faulty router that flooded other systems.
• U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford confirmed there is zero evidence of a cyberattack, nefarious activity, or AI-related issues.
• The FAA lifted the ground stop after nearly five hours, but delays are expected to continue for several days as airlines work to clear backlogs and reposition crews & aircraft.
• Over 2,000 flights were cancelled in the U.S. on Saturday, with Air Canada cancelling approximately 250 flights on Friday affecting 27,000 passengers & adding more cancellations on Saturday.
• NAV Canada announced that while U.S. airspace operations have resumed, some delays may persist in Canadian airspace as facilities return to normal.
• Canada offered full assistance to the FAA, including accommodating U.S.-bound aircraft, which was acknowledged by California Governor Gavin Newsom & Canadian Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon.
• The disruption impacted over 30,000 flights initially, with only about 8,000 recovered at the time of the ground stop lift.
• European aviation authorities suspended U.S.-bound departures from 5 p.m. ET Friday until midnight, & specific flights to Hawaii, Asia, & the Caribbean were also affected.
• U.S. college football teams, NBA, NHL, & NFL teams faced travel disruptions, leaving several squads stranded or unable to reach weekend games.
• Airlines are not legally required to provide compensation beyond free rebooking or refunds, as the outage is classified as an event outside airline control.
• U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged Congress to authorize billions in funding to modernize aging air traffic control infrastructure & prevent future occurrences.