What do we know about the reason for the paralysis of air traffic in America?

All flights nationwide were halted for hours on Friday due to a systems malfunction, delaying or canceling thousands of flights and disrupting passengers' travel plans as the weekend approaches. Although FAA operations have returned to normal, there are reports of long lines and significant delays at many airports across the country, while the system is still in the recovery phase.

Transport Minister Sean Duffy held a 45-minute press conference on Saturday morning, in which he apologized to travelers, noting that work is still underway to determine the exact cause of what happened. Here is what we know so far: The faults are likely caused by an old switch that relies on copper wires. Duffy told reporters that modernization work carried out on an old communications system may be the reason behind the nationwide halt of flights on Friday. At least one remote FAA site, contractor L3 Harris was conducting routine maintenance to replace aging copper communications lines with fiber-optic ones, Duffy said, describing the process as "straightforward and simple" work that has been done across the country for decades.

During the press conference, the minister sharply criticized the contracting company, L3 Harris, pointing out the possibility of “mistakes” on its part during the implementation of these procedures. But Duffy also noted that it was not yet clear whether the defect was caused by an error on the part of the contractor or by faulty equipment during the conversion process.

Duffy told reporters: “This raises a question for us: What did L3Harris do? They own this network, and they are our main contractor. I cannot turn to another party, as the network belongs to them.”

Or was the cause a faulty router? “We will find out the truth about the matter, and frankly, we will hold those responsible accountable.”

L3 Harris stated in a statement to Ofoq News that it is working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to investigate the incident. Duffy added that although most copper wires have been replaced with fiber-optic ones, about 30% of them have not yet been replaced.

Duffy indicated that officials are currently working to determine the locations of these remaining copper wires. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a decision to stop air traffic because the majority of air traffic control centers were affected.

In a press conference on Saturday, Brian Bedford, an official at the Federal Aviation Administration, stated that although as many as 17 out of 22 air traffic control centers were affected, there was no “complete outage” (complete cessation of work) in any of these facilities. He explained that the agency received reports from various facilities reporting a frequency interruption, which forced it to "switch between primary and backup systems."

Given the agency's inability to provide an immediate explanation as to why such a large number of facilities were affected, it issued a decision to halt all flights nationwide. “If it had been limited to one facility, we would have handled the situation simply,” Bedford said.

But when we saw the problem extend to two facilities, then three, then 10, all the way up to 17 facilities, we started to realize that there was something much bigger going on here." 'No evidence' of malicious activity Duffy and Bedford stressed during the press conference that management did not believe the outages were caused by a cyberattack or other "malicious" activity. "We had a lot of questions yesterday, like: 'Was this a cyberattack?'" Duffy said.

“We see no evidence of sabotage, no evidence of a connection to artificial intelligence.” “I think the worst is behind us,” Bedford told reporters, noting that a “full recovery” is expected by Sunday, as the country prepares for a busy week of travel around the Thanksgiving holiday.

While he explained that the system currently operates safely, he warned that this outdated technology "will continue to fail until we replace it." But he pledged that the FAA would continue to spend the money needed to keep the system running.

Meanwhile, frustrated travelers are forced to adjust their travel plans while waiting in long lines at airports across the country. By 1 p.m. EST, more than 5,000 flights had been canceled on Saturday, and more than 4,400 flights had been delayed “inside, arriving at, or departing from the country,” according to data from the flight tracking service “FlightAware.”

During the press conference, Duffy also asked Congress to provide additional investments for the Department of Transportation. “I think this is a signal for them to move forward and do more,” Duffy said.

Let's make the necessary investments and look forward to a brighter future in the aviation sector; A safer and more efficient future.” For his part, outgoing Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, told Fox News on Saturday that Republicans will use the remaining fifty days of their majority in Congress to agree to allocate more spending to the Federal Aviation Administration.

“We don't really need any investigations to realize we need additional investment,” Johnson said.