US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has blamed prior administrations and insufficient congressional funding for the travel disruption caused by Friday's four-hour nationwide flight stoppage. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ground stop led to the delay or cancellation of thousands of flights.
Mr Duffy told CNN that a contractor's botched routine maintenance, involving the replacement of telecommunication lines, was the direct cause. He claimed to take responsibility for what was inherited from previous administrations.
However, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen criticised the Trump administration for not properly investing existing funds allocated for air travel infrastructure upgrades. Mr Duffy countered that the $12.5bn in congressional funding mentioned by Van Hollen was limited in scope and insufficient for new telecom architecture or software development.
The FAA is currently investigating the root cause of the maintenance error. L3Harris, the contractor involved, is reportedly conducting diagnostic testing. Mr Duffy reiterated that there is no indication of a foreign cyberattack.
The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (Pass) union stated that its technicians were not involved in the upgrades that led to the ground stop, noting the issue was isolated to two contractor-owned and maintained routers being updated midday.