How a flight disruption can ripple

Across the country after the FAA reported communications trouble at air traffic control centers. The stop has been lifted, but the effects can definitely linger. Tech expert John Patterson is here to help us understand what happened. John, thanks for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me. Absolutely. So first, what was your reaction when you heard about the nationwide ground stop that happened yesterday? You know, I was shocked. This is only the second time this has happened since 9-11, if I'm not mistaken. And so, you know, I was out to dinner with my family and I got a phone call. He said, hey, can you come talk about this ground stop? And so I was very surprised at the timing, right? I think the timing is what struck me the most. This technological issue has happened before. Our tech is woefully old that runs our infrastructure, most of our infrastructure here. But to see this timing and all of the other things that happened that were kind of concerning, I think, to people that may not understand how all of this technology works. Yeah, and when you say you were shocked that this was only the second time this has happened since 9-11, with that technology being so old, would you think that we would have more occurrences of this? I'm honestly surprised that we don't, you know, and I think that last night one of the experts said it really well, I mean this tech is essentially like a mess of tangled wires Plugged into boards, it's from the 80s. And so while this wasn't cybersecurity and this wasn't something as dire as it could have been, it definitely points to a weakness in something that's really critical, right? I mean, think about people traveling into the holidays and how much concern and how much economic impact it could have. And for people who are just tuning in today, they're still unsure of what exactly led to all this. Kind of break down what happened that led to this nationwide ground stop. Yeah, so what we know so far is that it was a communication issue within the ATC system. And the way that it works is that when you get really close and you're in a plane to a local airport, they can communicate directly, but the radio doesn't pass over long distances, and so there's a handoff. And so what they saw was that system started to get overwhelmed and they were missing some messages, not all messages. But missing some messages is concerning enough for them to stop all planes for an abundance of caution to keep us all safe. And with you being a tech expert, do you think that was the right call? Like you said, it wasn't all messages that completely stopped, but missing some of those messages, especially when you think of people who are traveling via airplane, was that the right call to make, in your opinion? I think it is, especially given what else had happened during that week. The perception, right, the fear, like the knock-on effect of how we react to that is almost as concerning or as dangerous. As the actual impact, I mean, being out of communication in the air is scary, but it's something that clearly was managed and managed well, safely, I mean, 3000 flights were landed safely, which is amazing, but I think it points to a real issue regarding not just our Yeah, and we know officials have ruled out this being a cyber security attack for the most part. What are some of the things that were similar to this being a cyber security attack that had a lot of people worried here? Yeah, I mean, I think how unexpected it was for most people, how sudden, how little information came out. I think that what I saw was this administration move a little slower than I think most people would have liked. There was a two hour gap. Where they didn't say anything last night and I think that that creates a lot of doubt and fear and especially given the way that this administration communicates, you know, whether regardless of your politics, they can be a little slow to react on things that might make them look bad and or in situations where they might then have been at fault. And that I think is all fresh in our minds. We know we just had the Microsoft outage. That was big. We know there's a lot of AI concerns. AI playing a bigger role nowadays in general. Is that something that could Help with this situation in any way I know the technology is older, but do we see a way for AI to kind of help prevent something like this from happening again? Yeah, and I think that that's kind of the cat and mouse game you see starting to happen right when you think about cyber security again, this wasn't a cyber security incident, but. In that vein, you see that you have to use AI to stop AI, right? And these really advanced technologies can't be handled by humans. There's just too much information. It's too complex. And so it really will be AI versus AI. And we'll have to have really solid good guys on our side building tools that can help defend us. So we know the problem, old technology. What will it take to get this fixed? So that a lot of people who are traveling, they don't have to worry about dealing with this again. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm guessing there's a lot of people waking up in Detroit, you know, airport hotels right now. They're asking that question. And I think the unfortunate answer is it takes a massive investment. It's going to take billions and billions of dollars that I think is a challenge for, you know either party in our government to agree on spending. And ultimately, we're the ones that pay the price because it is crumbling and it's not going to get any better. Yeah. Do you think, I mean, obviously the millions and billions of dollars it'll take. That'll take some time, so do you think this probably isn't the last of these ground stops that we're seeing here? I would expect, especially in the vein of abundance of caution, that you will see things like this or delays or, you know, timing changes and more volatility. And I would expect that it's going to be a pretty turbulent, not to be too punny, but a turbulent holiday travel season. And I would, you know, plan for more time. Terrible timing with the holidays right around the corner too, right? Better safe than sorry, though. John, thanks for joining us.