Airlines work to clear backlog following FAA ground stop

Tens of thousands of people remain stranded at airports across the country tonight, more than 24 hours after the FAA lifted that airport ground stop, the largest the US has seen in 25 years. This is KTVU Fox 2 News on KTVU+. Good evening, I'm Amber Lee. The FAA says all communications are back online. Now it's up to the airlines to clear the massive backlog caused by the four-hour ground stop yesterday. Here's what we know. 7,000 flights were canceled and more than 20,000 were delayed today alone. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said today the disruption happened while a third-party contractor L3Harris was replacing a section of the system's old copper wire with new fiber wire. That work caused a system overload, which disrupted communications with airplanes and radar. Had over 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds, and what that did was It gave us issues with our communication with... Airplanes, and it also caused some disruption with our radar feeds, and when we see that, your safety is paramount. We shut down the airspace, and we do it safely, we get you on the ground. What we're working to determine was whether we had incompetence, meaning was it user error installer error from L3Harris, or did they install a faulty router? We haven't determined what the fault was. The FAA says it expects operations to get back on track by tomorrow night. Thousands of those passengers are stranded at the Bay Area's three major airports. KTVU's Jesse Gary is live at Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport with the latest. Jesse. Amber, good evening to you. Our airport officials here say right now 28 flights are delayed. Another 11 are canceled. For passengers who have delayed flights, those delays are running about a half an hour. This is much better than it was yesterday. The headache and horror that was Friday. Let's go ahead, take a look at our video. Passengers are still inside the concourse here at Oakland Airport, concerned they may miss their events or be stranded for a second night at Oakland. This follows Friday's nationwide ground stop impacting all flights that were not in the air. Passengers today say they've been facing cancellations, but mostly delays, delays, delays. Well, I've had at least two delays, and I just turned the rental car in, and there was another delay, so I hope I get there tonight. A phoenix. Just a phoenix? I almost rented a car and drove. I almost did. And you know what? My flight was at 1:30, got delayed until 3:50, then got delayed until 5:15. At the 5.15, I thought, you know what? I should just go and, like, drive to L.A. Instead, Beth from SoCal booked a flight from Oakland to Phoenix instead of flying from SFO to Phoenix because that flight was not available until tomorrow. In a statement to Fox 2, Oakland airport officials say in part, Oakland-San Francisco Bay Airport fared well last night and into this morning with no significant operational or passenger issues. There were a number of passengers that remained in our terminals through the night. Our terminal services team was equipped with water, snacks, blankets, and pillows for travelers. Select retailers in both terminals stayed open for 24 hours to accommodate passengers' needs. Some residual cancellations and delays remain, as you heard. Officials stress that flyers should check with their carriers as they come out to the airport to try and get on a flight. The problem is here much less than they are at some other major hubs. Such as LAX, where it's just a zoo. But again, if you're going to fly, check first and be prepared for delays. We're hoping that this will all kind of work through the system by Sunday night, maybe Monday. We're live at an Oakland airport this evening. Jesse Gary, KTVU, Fox 2 News. Amber, we'll go back up the freeway to Jack London Square and you.