Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, seeks funding from Congress to overhaul the air traffic control system; government rules out hacker attack
The United States Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, stated that the U.S. air system has reopened, but warned that the recovery will be slow. “It will take some time to return to full capacity,” he said at a press briefing.
Duffy said that the control system is old and needs to be completely rebuilt. “This is an emergency, something that needs to be done with priority. We need Congress to approve resources to fix this problem,” he said. The Secretary of Transportation stated that a problem in the network caused the system failure.
The secretary noted that, within two weeks, movement at the airports will be even busier due to the Thanksgiving holiday, one of the most important in the United States.
The United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, reinforced that the U.S. is living through a national emergency. He said that the air traffic control system is outdated. “We saw zero evidence that the system suffered a cyberattack,” Mullin said.
