FAA outage: Latest on investigation into nationwide ground stop

Back here live on the San Francisco, Fox local San Francisco live stream. We are continuing the conversations as to what went wrong that led to a nationwide ground stop yesterday. Every airport in the country had to ground those planes, preventing them from taking off. And that led to delays, cancellations that are still happening today and likely will continue into tomorrow. I want to welcome in. Hassan Shahidi, who is the CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation. Mr. Shahidi, can you hear me all right? I cannot hear you, my friend. I want to make sure you don't have your audio on mute or anything. Mr. Shahidi, can you hear me now? I can hear you. Okay, all right. That was my fault. I blamed it on you, and it was all me. No worries Thank you so much. You know, you joined us on Mornings on 2 and KTVU on our morning newscast earlier today, and you gave us a lot of really good context and insight as to what it is that the Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, and the FAA Administrator, Brian Bedford, had to say in terms of what these investigations are looking like. When we try to think about what went wrong yesterday, can you kind of just break down and summarize what it is that you heard and some details that stood out to you that you think the rest of the public should understand? Yeah, certainly. Well, it was reported the FAA's telecommunications service provider, L3 Harris, was in the process of doing routine ...maintenance and switching from copper wire to... To fiber and switching the network and in that process. Overloaded the system and that caused a cascading effect across the entire country, causing some issues in different regions and different centers, alerting the FAA that they need to issue a ground stop out of abundance of caution. So that appears to what has happened. They're currently still investigating to know exactly what happened. Exactly, was it the router? Both Secretary Duffy and Administrator Bedford spoke with high confidence that it was the installation of this router that was going to be the problem. And as you mentioned, The question is, was it the router itself? Was it that faulty and that's what messed with all these systems? Or was it an improper installation? But I wonder if you got the same impression, because when I was listening to that news conference this morning, as it was happening in real time around 7.30 a.m. our time, it seemed like both. Duffy and Bedford were really putting L3Harris on blast, a company that is very well known in the aviation and aerospace industry. Did you feel as if they were trying to point the fingers here, while also at the same time making a plea to Congress for billions of dollars, $30 billion, to try to upgrade all of their ATC systems? Well, there's still a lot that we don't know about this. Yes, and in the coming days, The FAA will collect the data, the information from the network, and that will inform the technicians and the experts in terms of exactly what happened. So it is early to tell. L3Harris has been the provider for a number of years, 20 years, and has maintained this legacy system. That is in need of modernization, of replacement, of change to more modern equipment. So it is early to really to say exactly what happened. But what is important is not really blame. At this point, it's really understanding. It's important to understand what happens because in the coming weeks, the FAA will need to put in the procedures, the processes, working with the service provider to make sure that this doesn't happen again. Sean Duffy also saying that for the last two years, he's been trying to appeal to Congress to get some funding to try to modernize some of these systems that he uses the word outdated that are decades old. Again, his words here. He says he was able to secure about $12.5 billion from Congress to do a lot of different upgrades that they've done to towers all across the country here. But I want to ask you, as someone who's been in the industry for a while, How true is it that there's been a lot of push and pull between the FAA and Congress to actually get funding to make sure these systems do stay up to date? Well, the administration did ask for the funding a couple of years ago, and the number $30 billion, about $30 billion, was the estimate at the time. And Congress provided a down payment of about $12.5 billion. So, and that funding is now being provided to the FAA to be able to do these kinds of replacements and modernization. I will tell you that a significant amount of work has been done over the past year and a half in replacing the copper wires to make sure that they have the new technology with fiber optics, and some of the switches have already been replaced. That said... There is a lot more work to do, so certainly additional funding will be required. And I will just say at this point, let's not let a good crisis go to waste. Let's make sure that Congress and the administration can come together, determine exactly what is needed for investment in the coming year or two years, and make sure that that funding is provided to the administrator so he can get the job done. Sean Duffy also mentioned that about 69% of copper communications has already been replaced and converted to that high speed fiber. That was part of the funding that was provided from that $12.5 billion in Congress. We also heard the FAA say that, and I want to use their words because this is what we heard, quote, full schedule integrity should be in place by close of business tomorrow. That's after some of the conversations they had. with some of the major airliners, essentially saying by tomorrow evening everything should be back to normal. Do you think that is pretty realistic or is that a little optimistic? Well, I can tell you yesterday I was flying when I landed at Dulles International Airport about 5 o'clock. I could already see the tarmac with a number of airplanes waiting to depart. Of course, all the passengers had to deplane. It was chaos at the airport there, as was across the country. Passengers frustrated, baggage all over the place. So this will take time, and I think that's a bit optimistic. I would say it will take a couple of more days to get to full schedule integrity. Today, there were thousands of cancellations, 4,000 to 5,000 cancellations and additional delays. So I would just say that we need a little bit of patience in the next day or two to get back to full. Mr. Shahidi, what questions do you still have? I would suggest that we really need to know the exact cause of this. Because we have a lot more work that the FAA has to do in the coming months in terms of modernization. And if we really don't understand what was the cause of what happened yesterday, was it a faulty router? Was it the workmanship? And exactly what was it that caused this cascading effect that brought the country's air traffic control system to a halt? And we do not want to have this happen again, especially with the travel season coming up with Thanksgiving weekend coming up in the next two weeks. So my question is, what was the cause? Making sure that FAA understands the cause and put in the mitigation so this doesn't happen again. Yeah. And Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, essentially said that this shouldn't. Definitely not be a problem come Thanksgiving in about two weeks, a little less than two weeks from now. They also mentioned that there are an expected 40,000 flights that were expected to take off today, 4,000 of which will likely be canceled. Can you speak to at all about what consumers can do, should do, the next steps they should take when they get the notification that their flight is canceled as a result specifically of this shutdown? Yeah, this is difficult for the traveling public. I saw it firsthand when I landed at Dulles International Airport. It's frustrating and understandably for families and those that are traveling, trying to reunite with loved ones. This is a difficult moment. I would just say, number one, check with your airline. Make sure you're updated on the latest schedule. And the airlines were working very hard, working with the FAA to try to restore the schedule. Second of all, have contingency plan in place in case you need to be delayed or, you know, that your flight is canceled. And third, I would just say be patient and make sure that you're taking care of yourself and you're taking care of your family. So speak to me personally here, Mr. Shahidi. You were midair when some of these notifications were going out? Yes, I was. I was flying into Dallas International Airport yesterday, and I was already getting information that there were some problems. It wasn't clear exactly what. I landed at about 5 p.m. Eastern time at Dulles International Airport, and then it was pretty clear that there was a full ground stop already in place because it started about 4 p.m. Eastern time. And what I saw out the window, there were a number of airplanes waiting to take off with passengers on board, and it was pretty clear that they were not going anywhere and they would have to deplane. And when I got out. I waited and I did my first interview there, in fact, with media at the airport and talked to some of the passengers. Which we appreciate, by the way. Absolutely. And so I think it was just difficult to see, you know, we've had this happen twice in the past 25 years, once 9-11 and the second time just about two years ago when there was another problem with another safety system. And so we really do understand the frustration of the traveling public. And at this point, I think it's important for the administration and Congress. To really look at this crisis and to really come together and make sure that the support and the funding that's needed are provided. I can tell you that the FAA administrator I know for a long time, he is a capable executive. And if he's provided the support, if he's provided the funding, he can really make a lot of progress. I'm glad you brought up the context of how rare that is, this being only the third time we've ever seen a nationwide ground stopping like this. Knowing that. When you're in the air and getting this communication, did your mind go to, you know, a dangerous situation? Would that invoke any fear in you at all? I can tell you that we in this country have a very safe air traffic control system. We have pilots that are trained very well, and they're doing their jobs very well. We have air traffic controllers that are professionals that do their jobs very well. So, no, I did not have any concerns. And I will tell you, FAA is a safety agency, and this was a safety action on the part of the FAA. You know, seeing some of these anomalies, you know, happening across these different facilities. And they took the right action to really bring the system to a halt, to make sure they understand what's going on. So, no, I did not have any concerns. But, of course, the traveling public is out there really being affected. You know, You know, their flights are canceled, they're being delayed, and it's really frustrating. So from a safety perspective, I would just say... We have a very safe transportation system and I have every confidence in FAA to make sure that the traveling public is safe. And how were you getting some of those notifications? Were you getting text messages? Were you watching a live feed on the plane? Was the pilot communicating anything to you at all? No, there was no communications with the crew, but I did have internet on the plane and I was in communications and I did get some of those information while I was flying and so, yes, that's how I got the information. All right, Hassan Shahidi, we've taken a lot of your time this afternoon and this morning, too. So thank you so much for opening up your schedule for us, being so flexible with our timing and giving us a lot of the insight and really a lot of ease, too, into what it is that this country experienced over the last 24 hours. So, Hassan Shahidi, the CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, we thank you so much for your time and being with us. Thank you.