Carl opens with the reopening of U.S. airspace after a ground stop. Sumi Somaskanda and John Pistole discuss passenger disruption and unanswered causes.
What the video covers
Written in our own words. It only describes what the video shows and says.Carl begins by saying that U.S. airspace has reopened after a ground stop halted all flights for a number of hours on Friday. He says more than seven and a half thousand flights were cancelled and thousands more were delayed after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered flights to halt. He says Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was zero evidence at this point of a cyber attack, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the problem was caused by the system becoming overloaded.
Radar and communication instability
Sean Duffy says that at 3.36 p.m. there was instability for radar, communications, centres and TRACONs across the country. He explains that airports have towers, then TRACONs, then en route centres, and that inconsistency began in radar data and communication with aircraft. He says procedures were used, pilots and air traffic controllers were well trained, and a ground stop was issued. He says there were over 3,500 airplanes in the air, and that the number in the airspace fell to less than 400 as aircraft came in to land. He says critical movements, including medevac, cargo and critical medicines, were allowed to continue during the shutdown.
Passenger disruption in Denver
Sumi Somaskanda reports from Denver International Airport and says the board shows many cancellations and severely delayed flights. She says passengers are trying to rebook and that the disruption will take time to resolve. She speaks with Divya, who says her family is travelling from Costa Rica to Edmonton, sees Tuesday as the next available flight in the app, and heard from staff that no meal vouchers or accommodation are being provided. Sumi Somaskanda says there has been little communication from airlines about overnight stays and that the backlog at one airport will take hours and days to clear. She says a flight that has not taken off from Denver also did not land where it was expected, which adds to the reshuffling needed across the system.
Security recovery and unanswered questions
John Pistole, who served as TSA administrator from 2010 to 2014 and is a former deputy director of the FBI, says he would not be optimistic that people in the eastern United States will get out on flights the same night, while those further west have better opportunities. He says screening depends on TSA officers being present, that people in the sterile area may not need to be screened again, but bags may have been offloaded and may need rescreening. He asks why the FAA system failed on that afternoon rather than on the busiest travel day, when nearly 3 million people travel within the United States. He says the equipment is antiquated and needs to be replaced, but questions the timing and asks what caused the failure. He says he has no information that a bad actor caused the outage, but would not rule that out until there is 100 per cent certainty. He agrees that it is a national security issue until external causes are ruled out and the problem is fixed.
