Duffy eyes possible L3Harris 'incompetence' in FAA meltdown

Cam Kettles and Aidan Williams, Bloomberg News on Nov 14, 2026

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday that officials are looking into whether aerospace and defense contractor L3Harris Technologies Inc. was at fault for an aviation traffic control system shutdown that grounded flights nationwide for more than four hours.

L3Harris was replacing a copper line with fiber at a remote Federal Aviation Administration site Friday when a router flooded other routers with more than 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds, disrupting communications with aircraft and some radar feeds, Duffy said during a briefing. The systems came back online after the FAA isolated the work at the site, he said.

“So what we’re working to determine was whether we had incompetence,” Duffy said. He raised the possibility of an installation error or a faulty router and added: “We haven’t determined what the fault was.”

Friday’s ground stop was the longest nationwide flight suspension since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said he expects 4,000 to 5,000 of Saturday’s 41,000 scheduled flights to be canceled as airlines reposition planes and crews. About 12,000 flights didn’t operate Friday, including roughly 9,000 commercial flights, he said.

Duffy said officials don’t believe the meltdown was caused by a cyberattack. Bedford said at the briefing that there was no evidence artificial intelligence played a role.

“This was an FAA system that didn’t meet the moment, or our contractor didn’t meet the moment or our equipment didn’t meet the moment,” Duffy said, adding later that many of the government’s contractors provide “really poor service.”

AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Lumen Technologies Inc. are working with the FAA on a replacement network. “But in the meantime, until I can build that, I’m stuck with L3Harris, who owns this network,” Duffy said.

L3Harris said Saturday it has completed 70% of the planned conversion from copper wire to fiber in the FAA’s communications network.

“We are supporting the FAA in its investigation to understand the conditions that led to the Nov. 13 ground stop of our nation’s air travel,” the company said in a statement. “L3Harris takes the nationwide ground stop and its impact on travelers, airlines and air traffic operations seriously.”

Its shares closed at $272.35 Friday, up 17% from a 52-week low of $232.34 on Oct. 8.

Lumen spokesperson said its network wasn’t involved in the disruption but the incident illustrates the need to modernize the system. AT&T said its network has been operating normally.

Airlines expect to restore their full schedules by the end of Sunday, Bedford told reporters. Duffy called for Congress to provide $50 billion in emergency funding to upgrade the aging air traffic control system and said the request will be submitted on Monday.