FAA ground stop live updates: 'Zero evidence of anything nefarious,' FAA head says

Contractor L3Harris released a statement saying it takes the ground stop and its impact on travelers "seriously" after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the company was updating communication infrastructure shortly before the ground stop.

"We are supporting the FAA in its investigation to understand the conditions that led to the Nov. 13 ground stop of our nation’s air travel. L3Harris takes the nationwide ground stop and its impact on travelers, airlines and air traffic operations seriously," L3Harris said in a statement.

"L3Harris has been modernizing the communication infrastructure supporting the National Airspace System in coordination with the FAA. 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 said.

Duffy said earlier that L3Harris was replacing copper equipment when a router started flooding other routers in the air traffic control system. This then caused instability that led officials to order a ground stop on Friday.

American Airlines announced it is adding fare caps across their domestic and short international flights as delays are expected to continue after Friday's national ground stop.

The airline said it has added 1,750 seats with extra flights on Saturday.

To aid in recovery on Saturday, pilots and flight attendants commuting to their bases can book confirmed seats and the airline is also giving crews premium pay for certain flights.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called on Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to resign or President Donald Trump should remove him "immediately" on Saturday.

"From chronic air traffic controller shortages to repeated communications breakdowns, serious lapses in our aviation system have become a pattern on Sean Duffy’s watch. Through it all, he’s been more focused on starring in his own reality show than addressing the crisis at his agency," Hochul said in a statement Saturday.

"With millions of Americans preparing to travel for the holidays, families deserve answers and confidence in the safety of our skies. Congress must launch a full investigation to determine what went wrong and ensure it never happens again," Hochul said.

The ground stop on Friday was the result of faulty equipment, Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford said at a press conference Saturday.

"We see zero evidence of anything nefarious, and zero evidence of anything AI-related. So we want to be clear that we have a equipment issue, and we're working through what this defective piece of equipment was," Bedford said.

"When we have that root cause analysis complete, we'll share it with you," Bedford said.