Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have offered conflicting explanations for a nationwide ground stop that disrupted air travel, with Duffy blaming a faulty router and the president attributing the problems to the Biden administration.
In television appearances on Sunday, Mr Duffy said a radio facility in El Dorado, Arkansas, had undergone a routine router upgrade as it moved from copper wiring to fibre-optic cable.
He said an issue was later identified at a radar facility in Amarillo, Texas, which had completed a similar upgrade weeks earlier. Both facilities began sending unusually large numbers of signals to air traffic control communications, he said.
The resulting strain spread across other parts of the communications network, leading to the order for the ground stop, according to Mr Duffy.
Mr Trump rejected that explanation in a post on Truth Social, writing: “The Biden Administration was an FAA disaster. Everything they touched turned bad. Big money spent unwisely, making an old and broken system worse than when they began.”
The president also backed Mr Duffy’s call for Congressional funding, while praising the Federal Aviation Administration for doing a “great job”.
More than 16,300 flights had been cancelled between Friday and Sunday following the disruption.
Mr Duffy’s comments came after a tense exchange on Friday, when he visibly shook his head and appeared to nudge Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Mr Mullin had blamed Mr Duffy and new FAA equipment updates for overwhelming the older system.
