More than one million passengers saw their travel plans upended on Friday when the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a rare systemwide ground stop after new contractor equipment overloaded antiquated air traffic control technology.
The nationwide grounding halted flights as the agency struggled with infrastructure dependent on 1980s technology, 1990s software, and 1970s radar parts. Tracking service FlightAware reported 9,200 canceled flights during the disruption, according to CNN.
“That new equipment, new technology just was overwhelming the older system,” Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told CNN. “The patchwork doesn’t work.”
The crisis began when a contractor attempted to replace copper wire with fiber optics in a critical communication network. That upgrade overwhelmed the legacy system monitoring planes at cruising altitudes, forcing the FAA to halt departures and arrivals. Although the ground stop lifted shortly after 8 p.m. ET on Friday, secondary delays from misplaced aircraft and crew shortages pushed Saturday cancellations to another 6,200 flights.
The US air traffic control network handles more than 45,000 flights daily using equipment that relies on paper flight strips, floppy computer discs, and copper wire. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pointed to the deep technological deficit during a Friday night press conference.
“We use 1980s technology, 1990s software, to use 1970s radar that we don’t make parts for anymore,” Duffy told CNN.
Industry analysts point out that finding replacement components for decades-old machinery grows increasingly difficult.
Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group, said that aviation technology often lags behind commercial standards because operators are risk-averse and maintain narrow profit margins.
“If you own a car for 30 years, it’s going to be increasingly difficult as the car gets older to find the replacement parts you need to keep it in operating condition,” Harteveldt told CNN. “There are many parts of airline and aviation technology that are no longer fit due to their age.”
Friday’s disruptions echo previous technological failures across the aviation sector. A January 2023 outage grounded US flights after a system notifying pilots of route conditions failed. In May 2025, communication breakdowns around Newark Liberty Airport forced flight caps and drove air traffic controllers to take trauma leave.
Airlines face similar vulnerabilities in their back-office software. A July 2024 automated update from cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike crashed Windows computers globally, hitting Delta Air Lines particularly hard when its crew-tracking software failed. During the 2022 winter holidays, Southwest Airlines suffered 16,700 canceled flights costing at least $1 billion due to an antiquated crew scheduling system relying on manual phone calls.
Harteveldt said that Southwest has since spent at least $1.3 billion on technology upgrades.
Meanwhile, the FAA’s modernization push remains tied to congressional funding. Lawmakers approved $12.5 billion for air traffic control upgrades last year. Following Friday’s meltdown, Duffy said the agency now requires $50 billion to complete the overhaul.
“What we’re doing is hard, and it hasn’t happened in the past because it is hard,” Duffy told CNN on Friday night. “I’ll tell you, by doing nothing, you inject way more risk into the system.”
Earlier coverage: FAA Ground Stop Disrupts 20,000 US Flights Due to Communication Failures
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