L3Harris said its copper-to-fiber upgrade for U.S. aviation communications is more than 70% complete as it assists an investigation into a Nov. 13 outage that halted nationwide flights for more than four hours.
In a Saturday statement, L3Harris said telecommunications partners and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were involved in the work. The company said it was assisting the agency’s investigation. It cited impacts on travelers, airlines and air traffic operations.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said a router involved in the upgrade flooded other routers in the air traffic control system, disrupting communications and radar feeds, according to a Nov. 14 update from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Duffy said the copper line was being replaced because it was due to be discontinued. Officials had not determined whether contractor error or a faulty router caused the problem.
FlightAware figures cited by The Associated Press showed more than 6,400 of the 41,000 flights scheduled for Saturday had been canceled by Saturday night. The cancellations extended the disruption detailed in EconoTimes’ earlier report on the FAA ground stop.
The Associated Press described the stoppage as the longest U.S. flight halt in 25 years, noting nationwide ground stops in 2023 and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told AP he expected schedules to recover by the end of Sunday.
