Mullin Doesn't Rule Out Cyber Attack In Unprecedented Nationwide Passenger Plane Grounding

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Friday that he had "no reason to believe" that an unprecedented nationwide grounding of the nation's air traffic was due to a threat, but he did not rule out a cyber attack.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration issued the nationwide ground stop, its second such order in recent years, citing communication issues.

Mullin, in an interview with reporters outside the White House, said, “There is no indication, and we have no reason to believe as of right now that this was a threat to the United States." However, when later asked if the disruption could have been a cyber attack or an AI intrusion, he said, "That's not known."

In a notice, the FAA said, “Due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” the agency ordered that “all airports are ground stopped.”

It's unclear how long the grounding will last. Mullin said, "It’s going to take some time, and so this isn’t going to just be be resolved and and turned around within the hour. This is this is going to take take some time." He added, "There should be no fear to the public at all.”

Mullin was also asked about its new AI-driven air traffic tool, known as SMART, which was rolled out nationwide this week. He responded: "We're looking at that."

In a post on X, however, the developers of the AI system, Boston-based Air Space Intelligence, said: “The current ground stop is not based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA” and air traffic control.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy earlier said on X that the FAA “issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers.” He added, “FAA technicians are investigating the issue.”

Those facilities manage aircraft traveling between airports and primarily guide pilots along their routes to maintain safe separation between planes.

The latest outage comes amid a series of equipment and technology problems that have disrupted FAA operations in recent years.

Those incidents include a January 2023 outage of the agency’s Notice to Airmen system, which halted all U.S. domestic departures, exposing vulnerabilities in the system pilots rely on for critical flight-safety information. During that outage, contractor personnel unintentionally deleted files during a software update — an error that led to the nation’s first major ground stop since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Pilots use NOTAMs to understand changes or potential obstacles during their route.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said this week he plans to lobby Congress next week for $30 billion in funding to upgrade the nation’s fragile air traffic control system.

This week, the FAA announced it would take its AI-driven air traffic tool nationwide. The FAA said in a statement that the tool, known as SMART, will be used “in the airspace of all 22 centers across the country to reduce delays, reduce fuel consumption and improve the travel experience for the flying public,” a reference to the Air Route Traffic Control Centers — the same type of facilities experiencing the outages.