A routine upgrade of Federal Aviation Administration telecommunications lines caused a nationwide ground stop on Friday.
The hourslong halt to departing flights across the United States followed a technical disruption during modernization work at a remote site. L3Harris Technologies, a defense contractor based in Florida owns and operates essential communications infrastructure for the Federal Aviation Administration. Technicians required 45 minutes to pinpoint the problem after the communications breakdown affected voice communications and radar feeds.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that the incident appeared to stem from routine maintenance where copper lines were being swapped for fiber-optic connections. Officials have not determined whether defective equipment, faulty installation, or contractor error caused the outage.
Federal officials stopped short of placing immediate blame on the contractor while vowing a thorough examination of the root cause.
What did L3Harris do? Did they make mistakes yesterday? They own this network. They’re our prime contractor. I can’t go somewhere else. They own it. Or was it a faulty router? And we’re going to find that out. And frankly, we’re going to hold people accountable.
Sean Duffy, Transportation Secretary
The contractor has completed more than 70% of the communications infrastructure overhaul across more than 4,400 sites, replacing aging copper lines with fiber-optic technology in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration and telecommunications partners. Formed in 2019 through the merger of two defense contractors, the Florida-based company employed about 45,000 people at the start of the year, with about 75% of its revenue derived from U.S. government contracts, many supporting the military.
Secretary Duffy said that the agency is attempting to build a modern replacement for its telecommunications network over the next few years alongside other partners, including Verizon and AT&T. Until that replacement network is built, the agency remains reliant on the prime contractor.
“Until I can build that, I'm stuck with L3Harris,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.
Earlier coverage: Federal Aviation Administration Halts All Departures Nationwide
