Reported 14 Nov 2026 · Safety A one-minute read

The FAA named a router and a contractor's cable work, and ruled out AI.

At a Saturday briefing officials said L3Harris was swapping copper for fiber when a router flooded the network. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said there is zero evidence anything AI related was involved.

Until now

Officials would not rule AI out as a cause of Friday's shutdown.

Now

They name 2001 era routers and a contractor's cable swap instead.

Why it matters

Our lead card yesterday put the AI explanation first on the dials. This briefing pushes it down. It also moves the question: not whether a new AI layer broke the system, but whether 2001 era hardware can carry one. No written finding exists yet.

Established

Officials say L3Harris was replacing copper with fiber when the failure began.
Duffy says one router made over 1,000 connection attempts every 4 seconds.
Bedford says there is zero evidence of anything nefarious or AI related.

Not established

That the cause is settled. Duffy says the fault is undetermined.
Whether it was bad installation, misconfiguration or a defective part.
That SMART is cleared by a finding. No written report exists.

The five-minute readThe record, the timeline, the weight and 5 sources

The record

Reported, not verified: the FAA newsroom carries only its November 13 statement, and we found no written FAA or Transportation Department release for the Saturday briefing. We read faa.gov/newsroom and transportation.gov. The account here comes from NPR, an Associated Press live file and Scripps News, each timestamped. A written FAA finding, an inspector general report or sworn testimony would move it.

The briefing ran on Saturday November 14 between roughly 16:01 and 16:23 Universal Time, which is 11:01 to 11:23 am Eastern. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the outage began while contractor L3Harris was switching telecommunications lines at a remote FAA site, taking them "from old copper wire, and they're bringing it over to fiber," because the copper line was being discontinued. He said "L3Harris actually owns that network." On the mechanism, Duffy said a router "started flooding other routers in our air traffic control system," with "over 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds." Asked what went wrong, he said officials are checking "whether we had incompetence," meaning user error, or a faulty router, and added "We haven't determined what the fault was." NPR reports the routers at those facilities were manufactured in 2001, and quotes Duffy saying "this is not complicated," and "Just maybe the FAA is the last one to be doing this work because the investments haven't been made." On cause and intent Duffy said "we don't believe this was cyber at all." FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said there was "zero evidence of anything nefarious and zero evidence of anything AI related," and "We want to be clear that we have an equipment issue." Bedford said "No facilities went dark. Nothing was fully lost." On the disruption: airspace reopened at 8:15 pm Eastern on Friday, per Duffy, after a stop issued at 3:54 pm Eastern. FlightAware counted nearly 25,000 flights delayed and over 9,000 cancelled on Friday. Cirium counted more than 4,000 cancellations by Saturday morning, about 14% of United States departures. Bedford expected 4,000 to 5,000 of roughly 41,000 scheduled Saturday flights to be cancelled, with full schedules by close of business Sunday. Duffy said the FAA will "reevaluate" doing this work during the day. L3Harris, successor to Harris Corporation, which won the FAA telecommunications contract in 2002, did not respond to requests for comment. Not established: the specific fault, whether any finding will be written, and whether SMART traffic contributed to the load.

How it got here

Jun 2026
The FAA awards Air Space Intelligence an $875 million, 12 year contract for SMART.
Nov 10
The FAA announces SMART is expanding to all 22 air route traffic control centers.
Nov 13
At 3:54 pm Eastern the FAA issues a nationwide ground stop citing communication issues at multiple centers. Air Space Intelligence and Microsoft both say it is not theirs. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says "You can't rule out anything." Edition 092's lead card.
Nov 13
Airspace reopens at 8:15 pm Eastern, after roughly 4 hours. FlightAware ends the day at nearly 25,000 delays and over 9,000 cancellations.
Nov 14
Duffy and Bedford brief reporters. They name L3Harris, a copper to fiber cutover and a flooding router, and rule out both a cyberattack and AI. The fault itself is undetermined.

Who has to react

L3Harris, named in public by a cabinet secretary before any finding; Air Space Intelligence, cleared in words but not in writing; the FAA inspector general and the National Transportation Safety Board, either of whom can open a review; the committees weighing $30.1 billion of modernisation money; and every agency installing AI on old telecommunications.

What to watch

Would weaken itA written FAA, inspector general or National Transportation Safety Board finding, or sworn testimony, names a telecommunications or hardware cause with no AI component, by March 31, 2027.
Would strengthen itThe FAA, L3Harris or a finding attributes the failure to installation or configuration by the contractor, or the FAA changes or recompetes the telecommunications contract, by June 30, 2027.
Would strengthen itAny finding or testimony shows SMART traffic on the affected circuits, or the FAA pauses part of the SMART rollout, by March 31, 2027.

Why it weighs this much

Signal strength

CostMedium

CommitmentMedium

ReversibilityModerate

PersistenceMonths

Cost is medium: naming your own contractor in public, before any finding, is a bill a cabinet secretary pays in political capital and in the contract relationship. Commitment is medium, not high, because this is spoken testimony rather than a written finding, and Duffy twice said the fault is undetermined. Reversibility is moderate: a later report can contradict the briefing, and officials left themselves the room to do it. Persistence is months, the time an inspector general or safety board review would take, and the window in which modernisation money gets argued.

The words

Ground stop: An order holding aircraft on the ground. A nationwide one is rare; Friday's was the first since January 2023.
Copper to fiber cutover: Replacing old analog phone lines with fiber optic links. The switch is done live, so a mistake during it takes the circuit down.
Router flooding: One device sending far more connection attempts than neighbours can answer, so working equipment stops responding. Here, over 1,000 attempts every 4 to 5 seconds.
SMART: The FAA's AI system for airspace, routes and trajectories, built by Air Space Intelligence under an $875 million contract and expanded to all 22 centers on November 10.

Sources

Your call

Given no written finding, which explanation do you believe?

A call is final. Other people's calls show after yours.