Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Saturday identified L3Harris Technologies, a legacy federal contractor that has worked with the FAA for more than two decades, as a possible cause of the catastrophic router failure that forced a nationwide ground stop on Friday, Nov. 13 — halting flights across the country for more than four hours and stranding passengers just weeks before Thanksgiving.
Speaking at a news conference, Duffy said the trouble began at a remote FAA location where L3Harris was performing routine maintenance — switching telecommunications lines from aging copper wire to fiber optic cable. "That contractor that does the work for us is L3Harris. They're a legacy provider. They've been working for the FAA for over 20 years," Duffy said. "The network that we use at the FAA to control the airspace — L3Harris actually owns that network."
According to Duffy, as the conversion work proceeded, the FAA's router at that location began experiencing a flood of data, overwhelming the system. The issue quickly spread to routers at other FAA air traffic control systems nationwide, disrupting communications and radar feeds. The FAA issued the ground stop shortly after 3:36 p.m. ET. It was lifted at 8:15 p.m., but Duffy warned that delays and cancellations would continue for days as carriers repositioned aircraft and crews.
It is not yet known whether the failure stemmed from an installation error or a faulty router, Duffy said. Investigators are still working to determine the cause.
L3Harris, in a statement to Fox News Digital, said it is supporting the FAA's investigation. "L3Harris has been modernizing the communications infrastructure supporting the National Airspace System in close coordination with the FAA," the company wrote. "With safety and reliability as our highest priorities, L3Harris, together with its telco partners and the FAA, has completed more than 70% of the planned airspace communications conversion from legacy copper wires to a fiber optic system." The company added that it is "supporting the FAA in its investigation to understand the conditions that led to the Nov. 13 ground stop of our nation's air travel."
The ground stop drew immediate political fire. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called on Duffy to resign over the incident, a demand that comes as the FAA chief, Bryan Bedford, has publicly apologized to travelers. Meanwhile, Duffy used the episode to press Congress for $50 billion to overhaul what he described as outdated routers and decades-old technology. "You will continue to see some delays and cancellations as carriers reschedule flights and reposition aircraft and crews where they are needed most," Duffy said on social media.
As Next News Network reported on X, Duffy said Friday's nationwide ground stop hit during the copper-to-fiber upgrade at a remote FAA site, when a router began flooding the network. Investigators are eyeing L3Harris and faulty gear. Another post noted that Hochul is demanding Duffy's resignation as the blame game escalates.
L3Harris Technologies, headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, is a major aerospace and defense contractor that has long handled communications infrastructure for the FAA. The company's work on the National Airspace System has been ongoing for years, and Duffy said the copper-to-fiber conversion has been occurring for decades. Whether the company bears responsibility for Friday's chaos — or whether the fault lies with the agency's aging equipment — will be a central question in the coming investigation.
Our Take
Here's what the Washington establishment won't tell you: this outage didn't happen because of one router or one contractor. It happened because the federal government has spent decades treating critical infrastructure like a piggy bank for everything except actual maintenance. L3Harris may have been holding the wrench when the system broke, but the FAA's copper-wire dinosaur has been creaking along for years while politicians patted themselves on the back for passing bloated budgets that never reached the routers.
Secretary Duffy is right to demand answers — and right to demand $50 billion for a real overhaul. But don't expect the same Democrats who want his head on a platter to lift a finger to fund the fix. Gov. Hochul's call for his resignation is pure political theater. Where was her outrage when the system was failing under the Biden administration's watch? The American people deserve a safe, modern air travel system, not a patchwork of legacy contractors and political scapegoats. The question is: will Congress act, or will they just wait for the next ground stop?
