Credit: © flavijus via Canva.com he FBI is looking at whether a software update caused Friday’s outage that grounded flights across the US, Bloomberg reported. The bureau does not believe a cyberattack or crime was behind it, Bloomberg said, citing one person familiar with the matter. The Federal Aviation Administration stopped all flights from taking off on Friday after a fault cut links at its control centres. The halt lasted more than four hours and hit all 22 centres, which guide planes between airports, Al Jazeera reported.
It was the first such halt since January 2023, when an FAA computer system failed. Thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled, and the knock-on effects are expected to last all weekend. No official cause has been given. However, multiple sources told CBS News that an update to the private network connecting the air traffic control system made it restart and then crash.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed old kit. At a press event on Friday evening, he said ageing systems had been flooded with data and failed, Axios reported. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officials were checking whether old and new kit had failed to work together. He said there was no sign of a cyberattack.
Mullin also said the outage was not linked to a separate global Microsoft outage on the same day, CBS News reported. The FAA is replacing much of its air traffic tech. It began using an AI congestion tool around Washington in September, though no source has linked that system to Friday’s failure. Get the TNW newsletter ✕ Close Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
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