FAA ground stop live updates: Air travel expected to recover by end of Sunday, FAA chief says

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) union, which represents more than 11,000 FAA employees, issued a statement saying its technicians were not involved in the upgrades that resulted in Friday’s ground stop.

"Historically, contractors have followed a protocol where FAA employees conduct a risk assessment and coordinate the maintenance of the system or equipment. PASS-represented technicians were not involved in the upgrades that led to the ground stop yesterday," the union said in the statement.

The union is also saying its members should have a bigger role in the FAA’s air traffic control modernization efforts, arguing that their skills and expertise will help minimize disruptions and make the process quicker.

"PASS fully supports the administration's efforts to modernize the nation's air traffic control system," the union said. "It must be recognized by the FAA that modernization will move more quickly with fewer disruptions if PASS is fully engaged. The employees represented by the union are on the front lines and they have the skills and expertise to make the Brand New Air Traffic Control System (BNATCS) a reality. These employees should receive training on new equipment and could ensure more robust installation and optimization—if the workforce were properly staffed."

-ABC News' Ayesha Ali

Members of rock bands that were traveling to the Vans Warped Orlando concert helped to ease the stress and tension for passengers during flights Saturday.

Videos circulated online of Simple Plan, Hoobastank and The Used performing their hits using the plane's PA system to amused passengers.

Some of the passengers sang along to their songs.

"It felt like a tube of happy people," Hoobastank vocalist Doug Robb said in an interview with Rocksound Saturday.

-ABC News' Malcolm Caminero

Over 5,200 flights have been canceled on Saturday as airlines continue to work around the clock to get operations back up on Saturday.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the system will be fully recovered on Sunday. As of 3:30 p.m. ET, 160 flights have been canceled on Sunday.

"Based on everything that we’re hearing from our airline partners, they believe that they’ll be able to have full schedule integrity by the close of business on Sunday," he said.

Nearly 9,200 flights were canceled on Friday.

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.