us air traffic system glitch caused by faulty router

A single faulty router likely caused a five-hour outage of the us air traffic system that affected over 20,000 flights on friday, the us transportation secretary said, Interior Ministry said in a statement, ARY News reported.

The outage, which occurred on friday, was possibly due to a malfunctioning router installed by l3harris, a government contractor, us transportation secretary shan duffy said on saturday.

Duffy said the router was part of a system that was being upgraded from old copper wires to fiber optic cables.

The router failure caused a surge in connection requests, leading to communication issues between aircraft and radar systems, duffy said.

The federal aviation administration (faa) had to issue a nationwide ground stop for flights as it could not determine the cause of the outage.

Learris said it is cooperating with the faa's investigation into the incident.

The faa spends $1 billion annually on maintaining its old copper wire system, which it is rapidly replacing with a more modern, fiber-based system.

The outage highlights the challenges faced by the us air traffic control system, which has experienced several glitches in recent years due to its aging infrastructure.

Background

The us air traffic control system has faced several challenges in recent years, including a 2023 incident where a nationwide ground stop was issued due to a government contractor accidentally deleting files.

The faa has been working to modernize its air traffic control system, with congress allocating $12.5 billion for the effort.

Impact

The outage affected over 20,000 flights, causing significant disruptions to air travel across the us.

The incident has raised concerns about the reliability and security of the us air traffic control system.