The national suspension of takeoffs in the United States on Friday, the 13th, was determined “out of excess caution,” said the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, in a press conference after takeoffs were announced to resume. He also guaranteed that “at no time were lives at risk.”
The measure lasted about 4 hours and caused delays in more than 10,000 flights and the cancellation of about 1,700, according to data from the FlightAware monitoring site registered up to 6 p.m. Eastern Time (8 p.m. Brasília time).
During the press conference, United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was asked whether they could guarantee with “100% certainty” that the failure which led to the suspension of takeoffs in the country had not been caused by a cyberattack or by an out-of-control artificial intelligence.
“There is nothing certain at this moment,” replied Mullin. “It does not seem to be the case.”
Earlier, Mullin had already stated that there were no signs of a terrorist attack or criminal action, but acknowledged that the government still does not know the cause of the problem.
What Could Have Caused the Failure
According to Duffy, the problem was related to the overload of old equipment. “The solution we found gives us a very clear indication that the failure occurred on an older network,” said the Transportation Secretary. He also asked Congress to approve funding to invest in projects to modernize the system.
“This is an emergency, I want Congress to give us emergency funding. This is a bipartisan matter; it’s an American thing. I need $50 billion. President Trump is a builder; he will build this more sophisticated network. But the president cannot give [it], unless Congress provides.”
The FAA has recently begun incorporating an artificial intelligence tool into the air traffic control system, but there is no confirmation of any relation between the technology and Friday’s failure.
Called SMART, an acronym in English for Strategic Airspace Management, Routes and Trajectories, the system was developed by Air Space Intelligence (ASI), responsible for an $875 million contract.
The tool, intended to help controllers avoid delays, underwent limited testing at the end of September. Two months earlier, it was demonstrated to the airports in the Washington, D.C. region, amid communication problems that also prevented hundreds of takeoffs.
At that time, the failure was attributed to a circuit defect and the accidental rupture of a fiber optic line used as a backup communication.
Microsoft also stated that there are no signs of a link between the flight suspension and a global outage in its services, from which the company is still recovering.
This is the third nationwide suspension of takeoffs in the United States in recent decades. The first occurred on September 11, 2001, after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The second was recorded on January 11, 2023, when a failure in the FAA system used to transmit safety alerts to pilots interrupted departures for about 90 minutes.
