One L3Harris Router, 20,000 Flights: What Investigators Found Behind the FAA Shutdown

TLDR

A single piece of network devices might describe why United States flight picked up almost 5 hours on Friday. Federal government authorities stated a router set up by specialist L3Harris might be at fault. More than 20,000 flights have actually been interfered with considering that the shutdown started.

A SOFTWARE UPDATE CRASHED THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK RUN BY$LHX L3HARRIS, CAUSING THE NATIONWIDE GROUND STOP
— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) November 14, 2026

What Went Wrong Inside the FAA Network
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy stated L3Harris was doing regular upkeep at the time. The team was changing phone and information lines from old copper wire to fiber at a remote website. Authorities stated routers in both Arkansas and Texas might have had issues.
Duffy stated the brand-new routers flooded other routers with more than 1,000 connection efforts every 4 to 5 seconds. That overload triggered interaction issues with airplanes and radar. It struck 17 of the FAA’s 22 en path.
The FAA then released an across the country ground stop due to the fact that it might not discover a source. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford stated the company lost the capability for those routers to interact information. He stated the stop was a preventative measure in case a center lost all interactions.
No center went totally dark, the FAA stated. Rather, information at the centers ended up being unsteady. The company raised the ground stop on Friday night.

Duffy stated private investigators have actually not yet chosen who is to blame. “We’re working to figure out whether we had incompetence, significance was it user mistake or installer mistake from L3Harris, or did they set up a defective router?” he stated. He called it an FAA system that “didn’t satisfy the minute.”

L3Harris stated it takes the problem seriously and is supporting the examination. The business stated it has actually completed more than 70% of the organized switch from copper to fiber. The routers being changed have to do with 25 years of ages and were due for replacement in 2006.

Airline Companies Still Recovering
Flight issues advanced Saturday as airline companies moved airplanes and teams back into position. FlightAware information revealed more than 5,300 cancellations and almost 6,300 hold-ups by late afternoon. Friday caused 9,200 cancellations and 7,500 hold-ups.
Delta, United and American each canceled about 20% of their set up flights on Saturday. JetBlue canceled about 40%. Airline companies provided waivers so travelers might rebook without additional costs.
10s of countless tourists were stranded at airports. College football groups heading to Saturday video games were likewise impacted. Bedford said sorry and stated operations ought to return mostly to typical by late Sunday.
The White House held an emergency situation conference in the Situation Room on Friday. Authorities initially checked out whether a cyberattack was included. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin later on stated it was not, and he stated it was not connected to Thursday’s Microsoft service interruption.
The FAA invests about $1 billion a year to preserve its copper wire system. Congress has actually offered the firm $12.5 billion for upgrades. Duffy has actually now requested $50 billion more for air traffic control service and airports, up from his earlier $30 billion proposition.
Friday’s interruption was the longest across the country flight shutdown given that the September 11, 2001 attacks. The only other across the country ground stop ever since can be found in January 2023, when a professional erased files by error. That stop lasted about 90 minutes and impacted 11,000 flights.
The FAA has actually not yet released a last technical description. Its examination will analyze how the router setup interfered with interactions throughout a number of control. Authorities stated the system might stop working once again till it is effectively updated.