Overview
- The FAA ordered a rare nationwide ban on departures on Friday after communications problems affected all en route control centers and halted nearly all U.S. departures.
- About four hours later the agency reopened the airspace and allowed flights to resume after technicians restored full telecommunications between centers.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said routers and other legacy hardware were overloaded and that routine maintenance by contractor L3Harris — replacing copper with fiber or installing a router — may have triggered data surges now under formal investigation.
- Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there is no sign the outage was caused by a hostile cyberattack, but federal agencies continue to probe the exact technical failures.
- The stoppage left thousands of flights canceled or delayed and tens of thousands of passengers stranded, and FAA chief Bryan Bedford said traffic should largely normalize by Sunday evening though knock‑on disruptions will persist.