US airspace "opened up" as officials address cyberattack speculation around dramatic ground stop

Washington DC - The US on Friday lifted an hours-long ground stop at the nation's airports, with top officials explaining that the disruption was due to old equipment and not a cyberattack or sweeping Microsoft outage.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy speaks as Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin (r.) listens on at the White House on Friday. US officials denied that a cyberattack led to a massive ground stop, but said investigations were ongoing.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy speaks as Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin (r.) listens on at the White House on Friday. US officials denied that a cyberattack led to a massive ground stop, but said investigations were ongoing.  © ALEX WONG / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told a late-night briefing at the White House that US airspace was now "opened up," while warning it would take time for the travel chaos to clear.

"At 8:15 tonight Eastern Time, we've opened up the airspace," Duffy said. "Now does that mean every flight is going to fly right now? It's going to be slow."

The breakdown came a day after Duffy and the White House had formally asked Congress for $30 billion to upgrade and modernize the US Air Traffic Control System.

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"Our switches, our routers actually got overloaded with data, and they went down," Duffy said. "It's the old hardware that went down, and I think the question for the American people is: Do you want your Congress to fund this?"

Duffy, however, insisted it was still safe for Americans to fly.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin dismissed speculation about a coordinated cyber assault on the US, or any link to the Microsoft outage that affected services worldwide.

"Welcome to Friday the 13th, right? You know, I want to make sure everybody understands that there is no connection between this and Microsoft. I know a lot of people are making that jump," Mullin said.

Mullin added there was "actually no cyber attack."

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Trump admin. officials blame old equipment for chaotic ground stop

"When we start looking at cyber threats, cyber attacks, typically some people are going to raise their hand up and say, 'Hey, we did that.' There's no chatter.' We haven't seen any footprints," he added.

But he said US security and law enforcement agencies were still checking and had ruled nothing out.

The two officials also defended President Donald Trump, who had yet to comment on the air stoppage some five hours after it began.

"President Trump immediately had people in his office," Mullin said. "We were communicating."

Cover photo: ALEX WONG / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

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