New York Governor Kathy Hochul has called on US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to resign or be removed by President Donald Trump following a major communications breakdown that forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to suspend flights nationwide for several hours on Friday.
The disruption resulted in thousands of flight cancellations and delays, leaving passengers stranded across the United States.
In a statement posted on X on Saturday, Hochul blamed Duffy for what she described as repeated failures in the country’s aviation system, demanding that he take responsibility for the incident.
“Sean Duffy must resign, or President Trump must remove him immediately,” the Democratic governor wrote.
She added, “America’s airspace ground to a halt yesterday, leaving thousands of flights canceled and travelers stranded across the country. More than 3,500 planes were already in the air as radar and communications systems faltered. We’re fortunate no lives were lost. From chronic air traffic controller shortages to repeated communications breakdowns, serious lapses in our aviation system have become a pattern on Sean Duffy’s watch.”
Hochul also urged Congress to investigate the incident, saying Americans deserved explanations about the disruption and assurances that similar failures would not happen again, particularly with the busy holiday travel season approaching.
“With millions of Americans preparing to travel for the holidays, families deserve answers and confidence in the safety of our skies,” she wrote. “Congress must launch a full investigation to determine what went wrong and ensure it never happens again.”
However, White House spokesperson Allison Schuster dismissed the governor’s demand in an emailed statement to Newsweek on Saturday, describing it as a political attempt to exploit an issue that should not be partisan.
She said, “call for Secretary Duffy to resign is a desperate attempt to score political points over an issue that shouldn’t be partisan,” adding that “every American deserves a safe, reliable aviation system, regardless of political party.”
She further stated, “This is a time for our country to come together, not to release clickbait statements.”
Duffy announced on Saturday that the FAA had restored full operations, although airlines were still dealing with thousands of cancellations and delays, alongside the challenge of repositioning aircraft and crew members.
Investigators are examining maintenance work carried out on the FAA’s telecommunications network to establish what triggered the failure. Officials have yet to determine whether the problem resulted from human error, installation or configuration mistakes, or defective equipment.
Speaking about the incident, Duffy said investigators were reviewing the performance of network provider L3Harris Technologies.
“This was an FAA system that didn’t meet the moment. Our contractor didn’t meet the moment or the equipment didn’t meet the moment, and caused the outages,” he said.
Friday’s incident was only the third nationwide ground stop in modern FAA history. The previous two occurred following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and a failure of the Notice to Air Missions system in January 2023. The latest shutdown was the longest nationwide interruption since the 9/11 attacks.
The disruption has also renewed concerns about ageing technology supporting parts of the US air traffic control system, especially ahead of the busy Thanksgiving travel period, when millions of people are expected to fly.
The FAA ordered airlines to suspend departures after detecting instability in the telecommunications network responsible for transmitting radar and voice information to air traffic control facilities. However, aircraft already in the air were not instructed to land immediately.
Duffy disclosed that approximately 3,500 planes were airborne when the order was issued, praising pilots and air traffic controllers for managing the situation without loss of life.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced on X that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had activated its National Response Coordination Center and all 10 regional centres to coordinate with federal, state and local authorities over the travel disruption.
He noted that no requests for federal assistance had been received and that state and local authorities were managing the operational challenges.
Duffy said the incident highlighted the need to upgrade the country’s air traffic control infrastructure. Congress approved $12.5bn in 2025 for modernisation, while the transportation secretary is seeking an additional $50bn to support a wider overhaul.
“We have the safest airspace in the world,” Duffy told reporters on Saturday, adding that the country should not depend on pilots and air traffic controllers to compensate for unreliable technology.
“We should be able to rely on our air traffic control system,” he said.
The FAA first noticed inconsistent radar and communication data at air traffic facilities at approximately 3:36 p.m. EDT on Friday. A nationwide ground stop was introduced around 3:54 p.m., preventing departing aircraft from taking off while officials investigated. Flights resumed at 8:15 p.m.
According to Duffy, the investigation is focused on routine maintenance at at least one remote FAA facility, where workers were transferring telecommunications services from an old copper line to fibre under a network managed by L3Harris.
In a statement published on its website on Saturday, L3Harris confirmed that it was cooperating with the investigation. The company also disclosed that it had completed more than 70 per cent of a planned project to replace traditional copper wiring used for airspace communications with fibre-optic systems.
“L3Harris takes the nationwide ground stop and its impact on travelers, airlines and air traffic operations seriously,” the company said.
Duffy explained that a router involved in the transition began sending excessive connection requests to other network routers, generating more than 1,000 attempts every four to five seconds.
The unusual volume of data reportedly disrupted the consistency of radar and communication feeds reaching air traffic facilities. Officials eventually isolated the affected system, allowing the network to recover.
However, Duffy said the exact cause had not been established, as investigators were still considering possible human error, incorrect configuration or faulty equipment.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford also clarified that air traffic control facilities had not completely lost their operational capabilities during the incident.
“Nothing went down,” Bedford said on Saturday. “What we saw was instability and we couldn’t explain the instability.”
Duffy similarly maintained that the agency had not lost all its radar and telecommunications systems. Federal officials also said there was no evidence that a cyberattack or artificial intelligence had contributed to the disruption.
The maintenance work was carried out on older telecommunications infrastructure and was separate from the government’s $12.5bn modernisation programme. Earlier in November, the FAA reported that it had replaced 69 per cent of its copper communication lines as part of its ongoing upgrades.
Despite the restoration of normal operations, flight disruptions continued into Saturday. FlightAware reported 3,803 cancellations and 2,145 delays involving flights within, entering or leaving the United States as of 11:33 a.m. ET.
Globally, the flight-tracking platform recorded 4,235 cancellations and 11,198 delays at the same time.
Friday had already been particularly difficult for passengers, with approximately 9,100 US-linked flight cancellations and more than 7,000 delays recorded during the day.
Airlines were also struggling to restore their schedules because aircraft, pilots and flight attendants had been left in different locations following the shutdown.
Bedford said approximately 50,000 flights had been scheduled for Friday. By the time the ground stop began, about 30,000 had either been completed or were already airborne, leaving roughly 20,000 flights yet to operate.
He explained that airlines managed to recover approximately 8,000 of the remaining flights, while about 12,000 could not be operated. The affected flights included around 9,000 commercial services and 3,000 private or general aviation flights.
Bedford projected that between 4,000 and 5,000 of the approximately 41,000 flights scheduled for Saturday could also be cancelled as airlines worked to restore normal operations.
“We will still have delays and cancellations today, but that will set us up for a full recovery tomorrow,” he said.
