Sean Duffy blames a ‘copper wire’ swap for grounding 1.5 million travelers. Then 60 air traffic controllers allegedly say his story is impossible

A group of 60 air traffic controllers is challenging the account provided by United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy regarding the massive nationwide flight ground stop that occurred this past Friday, Common Dreams reports.

This event, which stands as the third ground stop in history, left an estimated 1.5 million travelers stranded and caused significant chaos across the country. The FAA lifted the order at approximately 8:15 PM Eastern on Friday, but the fallout from the disruption continued well into Saturday.

Duffy initially pointed to aging infrastructure as the cause for the shutdown during a White House briefing on Friday evening. He claimed that overloaded switches and routers were responsible for creating inconsistent radar and communications data. He stated, “Our switches, our routers actually got overloaded with data,” and noted that the system was shut down as a result.

The narrative from the administration shifted on Saturday when Duffy introduced a new detail

Duffy claimed that a system overload happened while a contractor, L3Harris Technologies Inc., was working to replace old copper wire with new fiber wire. He suggested the contractor may have been at fault, stating, “Our contractor didn’t meet the moment or the equipment didn’t meet the moment.” Duffy further mentioned that officials are looking into whether the contractor’s “incompetence” or a faulty router caused the issues.

However, many professionals in the field are skeptical of these explanations. Anna Giaritelli, a reporter who spoke with 60 air traffic controllers, reported that they do not believe the administration’s story. She explained to Laura Coates that controllers find the timing of the alleged equipment work highly suspicious.

According to Giaritelli, “These types of switches… that the FAA is doing, they don’t happen during the day.” She noted that such work typically happens during the middle of the night or midweek when air traffic is much lighter, rather than on a busy Friday afternoon.

The administration is also facing questions about whether recent modernization efforts played a role in the failure. Duffy denied that the nationwide rollout of the $875 million artificial intelligence system, Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories, known as SMART, had any connection to the event. He insisted that the system “is not even plugged in.”

This stands in contrast to an announcement from the FAA earlier in the week, which stated that it “will now use SMART in the airspace of all 22 [air traffic control] centers across the country to reduce delays, reduce fuel consumption, and improve the travel experience for the flying public.”

Rep. James Walkinshaw challenged the administration’s explanation, pointing to a September report from the Government Accountability Office. That report cautioned that the FAA was prioritizing delivery speed, which carried the risk of cost uncertainty and potential disruptions. The report stated that the result could be that controllers are forced to rely on outdated systems that are prone to failure, often leading to outages and ground stops.

Amidst the confusion, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that investigators found no evidence of a cyberattack, though he noted the possibility has not been entirely ruled out. Meanwhile, critics are calling for accountability. New York Governor Kathy Hochul wrote on Facebook that serious lapses have become a pattern under Duffy’s watch. She also criticized his focus, suggesting he has been more concerned with his reality show appearances than the crisis at his agency.

As the situation develops, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford stated that normal operations are expected to return by Sunday evening. With more than 3,500 aircraft in the air when the ground stop was ordered and over 4,100 flights canceled on Saturday, the impact of this event is substantial. Duffy has used the crisis to renew his call for $50 billion in congressional funding to overhaul the air traffic control system, arguing that the infrastructure will continue to fail without more investment.