The U.S. Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, warned this Friday that there could be more disruptions to air traffic if the control system is not modernized, following a failure that halted departures nationwide for more than four and a half hours.
During a press conference at the White House, Duffy acknowledged that the infrastructure of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) relies on outdated equipment, including analog telecommunications systems and components that use technology from several decades ago.
The official explained that the emergency began when the switches and routers of the TDM system became overloaded with data and started transmitting inconsistent information. The failure, which started around 3:36 PM (Eastern Time), as the official clarified hours later, affected air traffic control centers and units responsible for managing aircraft approaches in different regions of the country.
"We have old switches, old routers. We use small copper cables from the 1980s," Duffy said, noting that the equipment modernized with IP digital technology did not experience the same problems during the emergency.
The total suspension of flights was lifted at 8:15 p.m. (Eastern Time), but there are tens of thousands of passengers who will have to wait to recover their itineraries and reach their scheduled destinations.
The secretary also described the deterioration of other aviation facilities. He explained that some control towers are nearly a hundred years old, while controllers work in buildings with leaking roofs, broken elevators, and faulty air conditioning systems.
When asked about the possibility of a similar shutdown happening again, Duffy acknowledged that he could not predict when another failure might occur. "But more incidents like this will happen. There will be more interruptions unless the American people and Congress tell us to construct the new system," he warned.
The official also admitted that the authorities had not anticipated an interruption of such magnitude, despite the history of minor failures. He recalled previous incidents in New York and acknowledged that the specific circumstances that triggered the emergency this Friday are still under investigation.
The White House also addressed suspicions regarding a possible cyberattack. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, stated that the investigations conducted up to that point had found no evidence of a computer intrusion. "We have found absolutely no proof that this was a cyberattack or an artificial intelligence attack," he affirmed.
However, Mullin clarified that authorities are not completely ruling out malicious activity and that cybersecurity teams are still investigating. Duffy also denied that the new AI program SMART caused the failure, explaining that it is not connected to the affected systems.
The emergency has revived the funding demands to Congress. Duffy indicated that the Trump administration already has $12.5 billion approved for partial modernization of the infrastructure, but considers this amount insufficient and is calling for a total investment of approximately $50 billion.
The secretary noted that Trump had requested $30 billion and advocated for a larger allocation to upgrade equipment, software, telecommunications, and control towers. He also stated that over the past 25 years, $15 billion had been allocated to improve the system, without what he considered sufficient progress being made.
The hearing was marked by questions regarding the government's responsibility and lack of foresight. In response to a press question about why the Trump administration had not prioritized the issue more, despite the Republican control of Congress, Duffy defended the efforts made and called for new emergency funding as soon as possible.
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