US air travel resumption will 'take time' after hours-long stop

Flights in the United States were resuming on Saturday after being grounded for several hours due to a major communications outage, though authorities said returning to normal operations would take time.

The nationwide stop on Friday sparked widespread chaos and left hundreds of thousands of passengers in limbo, with some pulled off planes moments before departure by airline staff who appeared in the dark about unfolding events.

The incident marked only the second time such an alert had been issued in U.S. airspace -- which is among the busiest in the world -- since the 9/11 attacks.

The ground stop lasted around four hours and was lifted at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time (0115 GMT Saturday).

Federal Aviation Administration officials reopened the airspace on Friday night "after restoring full functionality" at air traffic control facilities, according to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.

"It will take us time (to) resume normal operations... Our top priority is the safety of you and your family when you fly," Duffy said.

Administration officials blamed the incident on telecommunications issues with decades-old equipment, adding there was no evidence of foul play.

"This is a legacy system problem," Duffy said. "We have old, old switches, old routers.

"We use 1980s little copper lines. It's an old system that went down, and went down everywhere. It got overloaded."

Duffy had formally asked Congress on Thursday for $30.1 billion in funds to upgrade and modernize the air traffic control System.

As the ground stop was lifted, he repeated his plea.

"I'm going to say it a million times: the Congress has to give the resources to the president so he can finish this bill," he said.

AFP