Johnson says ‘we don’t really need any investigation’ on FAA ground stop

[u/usefsaeed]

https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/6220851-mike-johnson-faa-ground-stop/

[u/justkeepswimming2026]

Lmao no investigation just give them the $50 billion too I bet eh?

[u/Conscious-Quarter423 → u/justkeepswimming2026]

so reassuring that a reality TV show guy turned Fox host is in charge

[u/ahhh_ennui → u/Conscious-Quarter423]

It's reality TV show guys all the way down.

[u/idreamofgreenie → u/ahhh_ennui]

Well, other than the most billionaires who've ever been in a presidential administration.

The reality tv people are the incompetence, the wealthy are the pilferers.

[u/Octane_Au → u/idreamofgreenie]

Yeah I'd also wager it turned more billionaires into multi-billionaires than any other administration too.

[u/heretik77 → u/Conscious-Quarter423]

Not only that- he’s the shittiest MTV reality guy who married the shittiest MTV reality girl. And we all know she hate fucked Puck and gave Sean some super strain of herpes. I fucking hate these people so hard.

[u/HouseofMarg → u/Conscious-Quarter423]

I wonder what Ja Rule thinks about this

[u/AlwaysRushesIn → u/HouseofMarg]

Hell, at this point I'd rather trust Ja Rule.

[u/east_van_dan → u/Conscious-Quarter423]

What reality tv show is he from?

[u/dsmith422 → u/east_van_dan]

He is also a lawyer, but that doesn't qualify him to be Secretary of Transportation either. Trump picked him because he was on Fox News and had previously competed on two seasons of Road Rules/Real World Challenge. He was on a game show with "Road" in the name, so he was clearly qualified to run the Dept of Transportation. That is the kind of thinking that a demented jenius like Trump could come up with.

[u/Smooth_Rocket_ → u/Conscious-Quarter423]

Actually its reality tv show guy turned fox host turned unqualified Transportation Secretary turned reality tv show family paid for by corporation he's suppose to be regulating.

[u/lunaappaloosa → u/Conscious-Quarter423]

I just can’t fucking believe that bitch is from my county. 

[u/_Zambayoshi_ → u/justkeepswimming2026]

I'd love to know how they came up with this number, too. Grok?

[u/AdAdministrative5330 → u/justkeepswimming2026]

That's how you know they fucked up.

[u/Sure_Rhubarb_3173 → u/AdAdministrative5330]

Yeah Mike Johnson saying no investigation is needed is a flashing red sign that an investigation is needed

[u/MH360 → u/AdAdministrative5330]

Yeah, the "aw shucks, we just fell into this grift" shit won't fly.

The midterms put these fuckers on notice, and they really tried to grift the country for 50 billion before Thanksgiving.

Throw the book at them.

[u/Action4Jackson → u/justkeepswimming2026]

Lol I know right, this must have cost the US 100s of Billions but we don't need to look into it....

I was sitting at the gate when my flight got canceled the morning after the FAA ground stop. I think this needs an investigation. We planned a big family trip to St. Croix. After the ground stop Friday night we kept checking the app and the flight was still on. At 6:03 Saturday morning United texted us "We'll see you soon!" with our gate. We drove five hours to Newark, checked bags, and went to the gate. They canceled it while we were sitting there. This was more than 12 hours after the ground stop was lifted. There was nobody at the airport who could help. They gave us a QR code that only worked on one of our phones, and then we were on hold for four hours. When we got through, they couldn't tell us why it was canceled. The flight only runs once a week, so they rebooked us for a week later without asking. We ended up booking another airline ourselves for Tuesday. We lost three days of the trip and nights at a rental we already paid for. Plus ten hours of driving for nothing. I'm one family. There were about 9,000 flights canceled Friday and thousands more Saturday. An analyst said refunds alone could cost the airlines billions, and that doesn't count what it cost regular people. They're saying a contractor switching a telecom line may have caused it. If that's all it takes to shut down the whole country, I'd like to know why there wasn't a backup and what's being done so it doesn't happen again. I'm all for funding the upgrades, but we should find out exactly what went wrong first.

[u/serrated_edge321 → u/Action4Jackson]

Yeah the big irony is that the funded upgrades caused the problem. (Because they were done poorly, which is a very obvious running theme in this administration!)

I say... No, no we should not trust them with one more cent.

[u/lekniz → u/Action4Jackson]

This was more than 12 hours after the ground stop was lifted.

Recovery from an event like yesterday takes literally days. Planes are out of place, crews are out of place, crews that were sitting around yesterday have a minimum amount of rest they are legally required to get before being able to do anything today. There aren't enough reserve crews to cover every single flight that doesn't have an assigned crew because the ones that were assigned are stuck in an outstation after yesterday's cancelled flights. And those reserve crews are only stationed in a handful of bases.

The recovery after a bad day of thunderstorms takes an entire day or two. Now take that bad day of thunderstorms, make it worse, and make it effect the entire country.

Flights will still get cancelled because of this into Sunday, and likely into Monday. 12 hours after the ground stop was lifted is nowhere near enough time for everything to be back on schedule.

[u/Action4Jackson → u/lekniz]

I wasn't saying that like it should be clear, I was quite skeptical....and really surprised they sent me a text a couple hours before my flight saying to check in as I walk in the airport, I was feeling good.

The point is just more of a reason to investigate. I can't imagine the pure number of people that have just delt with with and lost alot of money because of it.

[u/shrimpcreole → u/justkeepswimming2026]

It costs big bucks to buy a custom Grindr integration for all GOP stuff.

[u/Spaztor → u/justkeepswimming2026]

That part of the address felt like the clumsiest ransom demand ever.

[u/PizzaWall]

The more they sidestep this, the more I know it needs to be investigated.

[u/JelliedHam → u/PizzaWall]

The number of times Mullin had to remind us that EVERYBODY IS COMPLETELY SAFE, THIS ISN'T A TERRORIST ATTACK made me very nervous.

"I like your tie"

"EVERYBODY IS COMPLETELY SAFE. DO NOT PANIC. THIS IS NOT A TERRORIST ATTACK."

[u/PizzaWall → u/JelliedHam]

I watched that interview and was totally convinced something is happening. If it was an equipment failure like a router, they would have immediately told us, explained why there was a delay for the backup to kick in, something to own up to the reason and everyone could move on. That didn't happen.

[u/Rsubs33 → u/PizzaWall]

Even if there is an equipment failure a router is going to be set in minimum in an active/passive pair, but they are usually in an active/active pair. If the network was not designed that way then they are fucking idiots.

[u/ehs06702 → u/JelliedHam]

I imagine they want people nervous about another terrorist attack. Scared people, and scared Americans especially will authorize anything to stay safe. Look what we authorized after 9/11.

[u/Horrible_Harry → u/ehs06702]

They're trying to push for privatization for MAXIMUM PROFIT GAINS because their example is going to be "Look at how bad the government is at managing things" once Dems take control of congress. It's all a part of project 2025. The grift continues.

[u/Flat-Food3211 → u/Horrible_Harry]

You seem to be forgetting that the point isn't privatization, it's to give big business co-governing powers and to functionally establish parallel governance systems. The German Ambassador to the US warned of this prior to the inauguration, but most Americans are clueless of it because Reuters is a European news agency and Americans live in bubbles where foreign news media is nonexistent.

[u/AppleTree98 → u/JelliedHam]

This spoiled my yearly vacation. Cancelled and rescheduled flights. One of the family still hasn't been able to fly yet. That is out of LAX. So not some small airport. This was a catastrophy. Heads should roll.  Lax is los Angeles. nd this was a once in a lifetime grounding of all planes. Not some regional oppsie

[u/Foyt20 → u/AppleTree98]

Third in my lifetime... But I get the jist.

[u/Tearakan → u/JelliedHam]

It's definitely the trump official's fault. They rushed that stupid AI system on the FAA literally a day before this broke.

[u/Ladyheather16 → u/JelliedHam]

I think that was for Trump's benefit. Not the American public.

[u/MoonOut_StarsInvite → u/JelliedHam]

It was the way both of them behaved that really made me suspicious. I wasn’t going to conspiracy first, but after hearing them you can’t help but think this was all very off!!

[u/GetsBetterAfterAFew → u/PizzaWall]

Just go read page 632 and 633 of Project 2025, they wrote out the plan in simple plain English. Its wild people forget or dont know everything going on now has been lined out on paper for everyone to read.

[u/DoxxingShillDownvote → u/GetsBetterAfterAFew]

Pages 632 and 633 of Project 2025's chapter on the Department of Transportation outline major structural changes for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Key proposals include separating the Air Traffic Organization from the FAA's safety regulators to form an independent Air Navigation Service Provider, shifting aviation research to the private sector, and moving away from traditional congressional appropriations toward user fees or revenue bonds.

[u/Kolbin8tor → u/DoxxingShillDownvote]

Project 2025: Make Everything Worse

[u/mad_mister_march → u/Kolbin8tor]

It's just so infuriating, because that's exactly what it is, making the world materially worse to enrich the already well-off lives of people at the expense of others. There's never an "enough" for these freaks. They're never satisfied or full. They're parasites.

ETA: Remember to support your communities. Support your libraries, your food pantries, your shelters. Vote in local elections as well as tge big ones. Donate time and money where you can.

[u/SirkutBored → u/mad_mister_march]

they tried the same thing with the postal service for a bit which was just as infuriating.

[u/AlwaysRushesIn → u/SirkutBored]

They are still working towards that goal.

[u/Wheres_my_Shigleys → u/AlwaysRushesIn]

See also, the national weather service

[u/ageofbronze → u/Wheres_my_Shigleys]

See also the USDA, forest service, NPS… the ones with our public lands especially piss me off. They are ghouls.

[u/CautionarySnail → u/ageofbronze]

And the beef prices. See, DOGE didn’t understand that South American screwworm crosses border fences. They saw prevention programs in Mexico and said, “Why should America pay for Mexicans to not have screwworms?”

We were paying because for America to not have screwworms, Mexico can’t have screwworms.

What a bunch of assholes.

[u/Red-Truck-Steam → u/Wheres_my_Shigleys]

This especially. Weather reports I rely on have noticeably dipped in quality ever since that DOGE shit. RADAR is out of order far more often than ever and they have an almost daily “data link issue” that stops me from getting weather altogether for a few hours.

[u/rabidstoat → u/Wheres_my_Shigleys]

Though the NWS returned to twice-daily weather balloon launches just this month, so that's good.

[u/michaelvinters → u/SirkutBored]

And public schools, don't forget the schools. That one's been going on for decades

[u/ElegantAnything11 → u/SirkutBored]

This never stopped

[u/fumar → u/SirkutBored]

Have you used the post office recently? We have had 5 rate increases in the last 18 months. The bubble mailer that used to cost me $4-$4.5 to ship now costs $6-9. If it's a rural destination, it's gonna be $9.

The post office is insanely expensive now. 

[u/Pussy_Whopper → u/mad_mister_march]

"The reason poverty exists is not because we can't feed the poor, it's because we can't satisfy the rich.”

[u/urbanlife78 → u/mad_mister_march]

Billionaires shouldn't exist

[u/redmeansstop → u/mad_mister_march]

And I think all the conservative people in our lives just ignored it as some nothing burger manifesto of some nut job, and moved on.. But they are doing literally all of it out in the open.

[u/ern19 → u/Kolbin8tor]

‘Why are we funding the government to provide essential services when billionaires could become trillionaires by destroying them instead?’

[u/nuclearDEMIZE → u/ern19]

This is the epitome of the state of the union

[u/Edexote → u/Kolbin8tor]

For you. Not for them.

[u/Howamidriving27 → u/Kolbin8tor]

Break everything and blame it on democrats has been the main Republican strategy for like 50 years

[u/StatusClone → u/Kolbin8tor]

Make America Worse Again 

"We're rolling back oversight!"

[u/GoAskAlice → u/Kolbin8tor]

I may never get on another plane again at this rate.

[u/Itsjustmebob- → u/DoxxingShillDownvote]

Take out tax dollars, 50b of them. Upgrade the system then sell it off for 1b to the private sector.

[u/_Zambayoshi_ → u/GetsBetterAfterAFew]

Doesn't say anything about fucking up the system and then asking for $50 billion though. Do you think Duffy ad-libbed that part? /jk

[u/ZenAdm1n → u/_Zambayoshi_]

If the government solution is too expensive then the alternative must be privatization, right?

[u/PizzaWall → u/GetsBetterAfterAFew]

Please post a link if you have it. I think it would be very useful.

[u/tosstossytossy → u/PizzaWall]

ok, here are two. Link to the heritage foundations documents to the FAA relevant link: https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf#page=664

Link to the 2025 Project tracker that references it: https://www.project2025.observer/en/objective/f90af9bce7d04742252d14f39

[u/ConfidenceMan2 → u/GetsBetterAfterAFew]

Can you just link or say what it says? Seems weird to just allude to it

[u/CautionarySnail → u/ConfidenceMan2]

There’s multiple versions and the Heritage Foundation actually re-numbered the pages a few times to prevent easy linking to given passages.

[u/StrangeWill → u/CautionarySnail]

Which is even more reason to not be fucking vague put your into the post or don't fucking post at all

Fucking hate what reddit has become

[u/Conscious-Quarter423 → u/PizzaWall]

who would’ve guessed picking a Cabinet of incompetent Trump loyalists would have dire consequences for American people?

[u/PizzaWall → u/Conscious-Quarter423]

I am waiting for someone to explain why White House Cabinet officials are now living on military bases.

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
• Attorney General Todd Blanche
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio
• Secretary of War Pete Hegseth
• White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller
• Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem
• Army Secretary Dan Driscoll
• Some non-disclosed names of other officials

To be totally open, Vice President Vance is living at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC because thats the official residence of the Vice President. So what about the others?

[u/Revenga8 → u/PizzaWall]

Because they've spent years riling up and encouraging their voter base to break the law and go after Dems where they live, and now they themselves fear for their own safety because they know they're screwing over their voter base who might turn on them next. The attack on the Pelosi's proved it only takes one of these psychos, and they practically praised that attack along with pardoning the Jan 6 rioters.

[u/sneaky-pizza → u/PizzaWall]

I never believe anything until it is officially denied

[u/NappingReader → u/PizzaWall]

They don’t need to investigate because it’s obvious what happened. Trump’s cabinet instigated a Denial of Service Attack against the FAA as the outcome of a plan to pay the son-in-law of the Transportation Secretary to shove his AI, sorry “SI”, product where it has no business being. 

[u/dotcubed → u/PizzaWall]

Absolutely. From almost day one this administration has shown themselves to be image obsessed, unconventional, manipulative, and clearly untrustworthy.

Between the nepotism and insider trader angles there’s no denying things happen behind the scenes, which is how coverups happen.

[u/Reasonable-Turn-5940 → u/PizzaWall]

Yeah this pretty much confirms they screwed up. If they could actually investigate it and blame it on Biden like they tried at the press conference, they 100% would. But they know they did it so we get a cover up. And another reality TV star put into a position too big for them saying "I NEED $50 BILLION to fix my screw up!"

[u/ptwonline → u/PizzaWall]

Just imagine what he would say if the Harris Admin was in charge right now. He'd be calling it a prelude to Armageddon requiring the full focus of Congress and others to investigate.

[u/Severe_Trip5877 → u/PizzaWall]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L3Harris
All you need to know right there if you take 5 minutes to browse the page of the company responsible for this

[u/El_Peregrine → u/PizzaWall]

We are a nation truly run by 🤡🤡🤡

[u/footsnax → u/PizzaWall]

We deserve to know why.

Just saying it was a server overload only asks more questions than it answers. Why did that happen, and how could we have let it happen? Why aren't there safeguards for that? Why did one fault cause the entire country to stay grounded right before Thanksgiving? Are they absolutely positive there wasn't a rogue or foreign actor at fault?

[u/Scaryclouds]

An absolutely insane thing to say. It caused a huge travel disruption, you absolutely want to understand what happened and went wrong. 

[u/TAV63 → u/Scaryclouds]

Yes they absolutely need an investigation at the minimum. They likely should need trials and sentences but with the obvious and massive corruption going on it without any consequences now it doesn't look likely.

[u/Manowaffle → u/TAV63]

You know how after major aviation incidents we just say “well, it’s probably ok, why bother looking into it?”

[u/LemonScentedDespair → u/Manowaffle]

"Meh, we dont know exactly why every plane in the US had to stop, but it doesnt really matter. It wasnt that bad.

Oh but we are gonna need $50bn to make it not happen again. Yknow, because it was so bad, right?"

[u/Staav → u/Scaryclouds]

If "no investigation is needed" for something this serious, then sounds like they know what caused it and are only trying to cover it up. Imagine that.

[u/Safety_Drance → u/Scaryclouds]

We don’t really need any investigation … we need further investment,” Johnson said during an interview with Fox News’s Saturday in America. “I mean, some of this equipment dates back to the eighties so it’s gotta be updated and that’s our responsibility. We’re gonna work to get it done.”

Yeah, for sure. But the reason it failed is because they specifically didn't do any of that infrastructure work and just vibe coded/slapped it on top of an antiqued system without bringing it up to a level that could correctly support it ahead of time.

Just wild. Lucky that it happened on the ground before it killed a bunch of people, but we need investigations into all the other vibe coded slop that's out there thanks to MAGAts.

[u/The_Frostweaver → u/Scaryclouds]

Thanksgiving, Christmas and New year's are going to be a shit show.

They can't even keep things functional on a random weekday? Cancel and get your refunds now.

[u/Substantial-Sea-3672 → u/Scaryclouds]

I work for a company that an outage never puts anyone in any danger.

We investigate 30 minute outages even if we think we’re 100% sure what caused it.

[u/waltwalt → u/Scaryclouds]

They absolutely know what went wrong that's why they say no investigation is needed. Just give them 50 billion dollars and it probably won't happen again. And if it does then maybe 50 billion wasn't enough. As things develop the public will be apprised of how much of their money is being stolen.

[u/Zahgi → u/Scaryclouds]

Not if he's already been informed that this is the administration's fault.

Know your enemy.

[u/BiBoFieTo]

"Stop asking questions!"

And,

"Why don't you give us billions of dollars if this is such a big deal?"

Something is up for sure. My bet is that the FAA and Microsoft outages are linked, and there's more to come.

[u/DawnSignals → u/BiBoFieTo]

Watch for banking systems next

[u/lfergy → u/DawnSignals]

The “good thing” about financial institutions is that they don’t all use the same single vendor or network for anything. Meaning hacking into one system or network won’t bring everything to a halt or result in mass data loss. Lots & lots of redundancy, required record keeping in addition to different banks utilizing many different platforms/vendors.

Not saying it is impossible (for example, a bloomberg hack would be BAD industry wide) but much more complex than hacking the FAA or Microsoft Outlook (single vendor/single source with the ability to impact many institutions).

[u/Upstairs_Baby8424 → u/BiBoFieTo]

I cannot wait until this sycophantic piece of garbage is no longer speaker 

[u/phantom_spacecop]

Only in Trumpland would a significant disruption to national air traffic be a non-issue.

Every single one of those corrupt assclowns needs to get minimum 30 years in federal prison. It can be a cushy white collar prison too as long as we never have to see or hear from them ever again.

[u/tots4scott → u/phantom_spacecop]

Obligatory IMAGINE IF A DEM DID THIS!

Never let any Republican legislator or voter live down the absurd hypocrises that they've perpetrated over the last 10+ years. Every single time they act in bad faith, call them out. 

[u/Glittering_Abies7118]

Wow, we really launched a cyberattack against our own state infrastructure in order to “prove” the necessity of a privately owned entity getting 50 billion from congress to “fix” the issue. It’s almost transparent enough to be insulting.

[u/Intelligent_Cap9706 → u/Glittering_Abies7118]

I hate being so conspiracy brained because of this stupid administration but it IS fucking convenient/suspect that they just cut 57 billion from the veteran’s disability fund this week (on veteran’s day nonetheless!!) and then asked for $50 billion for this, when 57 billion was just “freed up” 

[u/Prudent_Sale_9173 → u/Intelligent_Cap9706]

Imagine robbing disabled veterans of $57 billion ON VETERAN’S DAY and then turning around and saying “we’re the party that supports the troops!”

[u/arstechnophile → u/Prudent_Sale_9173]

Imagine being a veteran who still votes Republican.

At this point I wonder if they've been putting lead in MREs for a generation or so.

[u/Vid-Master → u/arstechnophile]

They have been putting fox news on the TV

[u/calcteacher → u/Glittering_Abies7118]

Can they destroy the evidence before the new congress is seated or a judge orders them not to?

[u/gizmostuff → u/calcteacher]

There will be witnesses to testify unless they silence them with money. We shall see. What a shit show.

[u/MrStrangles → u/gizmostuff]

First thing that stood out to me was the large trade on MAX Airlines 3X Inverse Leveraged ETNs - JETD the moment all flights were grounded.

The stock ticker is described as: The Fund seeks three times leveraged participation in the daily inverse performance of the Prime Airlines Index, compounded daily, minus the applicable fees. The Index is a total return index that tracks the stock prices of U.S.-listed companies that have operations relating to the airline industry.

Dunno but isn't it becoming a pattern, same thing with the oil stocks, it's wax on wax off Mr Miyagi style.

[u/Wrong_Swordfish → u/Glittering_Abies7118]

What deeply scares me more than that is that it can be used to keep citizens on our soil if trying to leave.

[u/sidusnare]

Never mind the man behind the curtain. Move along, nothing to see here.

/s

[u/Conscious-Quarter423 → u/sidusnare]

when your government is run by incompetent grifters whose entire job is glazing Dear Leader this is what happens

[u/lilianasJanitor]

When someone says they don’t need an investigation, you definitely need an investigation

[u/Leberknodel]

I'm sure this had nothing to do, nothing at all, with the roll out of SMART the day before. The thoroughly engineered and tested AI program that was created a whole THREE months earlier.

Nothing at all.

[u/Tonberry2k → u/Leberknodel]

And if they admit it’s AI it’ll crash the stock market even further.

[u/Krltplps → u/Tonberry2k]

<donald glover GOOD.gif>

[u/grantsm1960 → u/Leberknodel]

At least we know that while we don’t know the actual cause, it certainly was absolutely not a cyberattack. We may not know much about, but we absolutely, conclusively know that it wasn’t a cyberattack.

My dog ate my homework also.

[u/flojo2012 → u/grantsm1960]

Cyber attackers have just decided to get out of the way and let us fuck our own shit up

[u/CoverSuspicious5250 → u/grantsm1960]

 no one was thinking it was a terrorist attack until MarkWayneBilly spoke about at length.  These are unserious, incompetent individuals.  Idiots.  Like their boss.

[u/Count_Backwards → u/CoverSuspicious5250]

People were understandably wondering. Him saying it was definitely not that made a lot more people wonder about that.

[u/DelcoUnited → u/Leberknodel]

I’m sure everyone knows this but as someone who writes software there is absolutely no way to make production ready code for something as important as the FAA in three months.

In three months you could make a buggy version of candy crush.

[u/Sana-F16 → u/Leberknodel]

The SMART system is completely isolated from the NEXTGEN system. SMART will suggest flight plans, those flight plan suggestions are not directed through the NAS communication systems affected yesterday. SMART is contained within ATC’s flow control FMDS architecture. After a suggestion is reviewed it is then sent down the chain in the same syntax as any other flight plan. So no networking crossover exists between SMART and ERAM/STARS.

[u/CoolIdeasClub → u/Leberknodel]

"Guys I know this has been highly disruptive but we looked in to it and we have some amazing news; it wasn't our fault."

[u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace → u/CoolIdeasClub]

It was Joe Biden, everyone knows that

[u/trer24]

Something failed horribly. Could have been equipment, policy, human error, or something else It inconvenienced millions of people. The fact that we don't know for sure means an investigation is absolutely necessary. This government is ridiculous.

[u/Spreadsheets_LynLake → u/trer24]

Not human error, otherwise they'd have pinned blame on a little person.  What are the chances the AI was going on some Mel Gibson style hallucinatory rant, so they unplugged communication to stop the public from hearing it?

[u/def-not-bot → u/trer24]

They said it was some sort of router installed by contractors, but I don't believe them because we have an administration of lying fascists.

"It's pretty straightforward work that we were doing yesterday at, again, a very remote location. So what we're working to determine was whether we had incompetence, meaning was it user error, installator error from L3Harris, or did they install a faulty router?"

In a statement on their website, L3Harris said they have been working with the FAA to modernize communication infrastructure, including converting copper wires to a fiber optic system. The contractor said they have completed more than 70% of those conversions.

https://www.npr.org/2026/11/14/nx-s1-6040952/faa-ground-stop-airplane-travel

I'm not convinced and I don't appreciate NPR's uncritical acceptance of that explanation. The FAA implemented an AI system the same day there was a nationwide outage, and I'm supposed to believe it was routine router maintenance that set the whole thing off? Please.

The stoppage began at 3:36 pm EST Friday afternoon, days after expanding use of an AI tool, when the Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop, halting departures from all US airports. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced the ground stop on X, citing a “communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.” Duffy promised updates as more information is known and said FAA staff was troubleshooting the problem.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/11/faa-orders-third-nationwide-ground-stop-in-its-history/

[u/Hopsblues → u/def-not-bot]

A single router brought down our entire system...lol...yeah, sure thing...

[u/mrflash818 → u/trer24]

It's the churn. -- Amos, The Expanse

[u/frankieknucks]

Smells like more political corruption. They need billions to “fix the problem”, only for that money to disappear into the pockets of scumbags

[u/This-Requirement6918 → u/frankieknucks]

Ohh NOW we need infrastructure upgrades. Give it a few months so they can setup shell companies that specialize in this area.

[u/NappingReader → u/frankieknucks]

The outage was corruption itself. They don’t need to investigate because they know what happened. Implementation of the Transportation Secretary’s son-in-law’s LLM functioned as a denial of service attack by all appearances. As many expected it to when they announced they were implementing it the day before. So it’s just Trump’s cabinet carrying out a cyber attack on the United States of America, nothing to see here move along give us more taxpayer money to “repair” the thing we used taxpayers money to break in order to pad family pockets.

[u/kickinwood]

Investigation is needed, I think they're lying because they've done that a lot. However, I would like to hear anything Buttigieg or others outside of the administration about the state of our equipment. I could believe that it needs to be updated. I just don't trust this administration to handle the funds to do so.

[u/nernst79 → u/kickinwood]

It definitely needs updated. Biden tried to do that in 2021, Republicans blocked it. Both parties know something needs to happen here.

[u/SaltyFriend705 → u/nernst79]

It's needed a complete overhaul, not an update, since the Reagan administration. In fact, PATCO went on strike over this; they wanted a full redesign instead of patching because they didn't feel in effective control over the skies.

Reagan, in true idiot fashion, fired the controllers, did nothing to upgrade or overhaul the system and there it is.

[u/spellegrano]

This was not a bug. It was planned so that the administration could demand $50Bm for upgrades.

[u/wwaxwork → u/spellegrano]

It was planned as per Project 2025. Start at Page 632 with a summary on 633 for more information.

[u/FinndBors → u/spellegrano]

Transportation secretary Duffy’s son in law got campaign contributions from the company doing the AI upgrades.

Never let a crisis go to waste.

[u/Impossible_Walrus555 → u/FinndBors]

This must be investigated. So corrupt. Duffy was campaigning for him as he flooded him with money.

[u/theMightBoop → u/spellegrano]

And I bet it will be a no bid contract

[u/Pferdeherz → u/theMightBoop]

For Duffy’s son who just got elected to the house from Wisconsin

[u/questionname → u/theMightBoop]

And some how financially tied to trump administration

[u/CGI_OCD → u/spellegrano]

$50B with a B dude. Even worse.

[u/kemosabe19]

All you have to ask yourself is if this was done with a Democrat pres, you sure as hell would never hear the end of republicans gnashing their teeth. Always quiet as a mouse on their watch.

[u/rearadmiraldumbass → u/kemosabe19]

If this were a Democrat president we would still be arguing about the environmental impact. /s

This administration used to be just bad. This is just exposing their corruption. I hope Congress takes these idiots down.

[u/hmr0987 → u/kemosabe19]

For sure and if their next response was give us $50 billion the pundits would all be in the hospital with aneurisms.

[u/TheManWith2Poobrains]

Insert 'This is fine' while everything burns meme.

Seriously, one of the most serious outages EVER and they are unwilling to investigate.

Anyway, who gives 2 shits what an out-going Republican representative says. He's not house leader anymore.

[u/Leumas_ → u/TheManWith2Poobrains]

They only don’t want to investigate because this was on purpose. Friday after 3…$50 billion demand because “everything’s fucked and old”…but if anyone wants to know a single thing about WHY they need $50b, suddenly we don’t need to worry about it.

[u/pleakonfleek → u/Leumas_]

It doesn’t cost $50bn to learn not to do a system update on a Friday afternoon. That was some really rookie shit

[u/NappingReader → u/TheManWith2Poobrains]

Unfortunately he is still house leader for a month and a half.

[u/fancy_crisis]

Ok so it was definitely the new ai fucked up then.

[u/SlapThatAce]

Isn't the timing a bit convenient? Just when Nvidia and Trump's best bud fo life is in the spotlight ..BOOM massive FAA issued ground stop without an explanation and potentially no investigation.

[u/Beneficial_Handle942 → u/SlapThatAce]

That's interesting, but the truth is this admin fucks up so often it's not done to cover up the prior fuck up.

They're just that incompetent.

[u/BRAX7ON → u/Beneficial_Handle942]

It can be both

[u/Abracadaver14 → u/Beneficial_Handle942]

There's no fuckups, this is intentional incompetence (one might even call it malice)

[u/War1today]

Johnson is the most corrupt, dishonest, lazy and capitulating House leader in modern U.S. history.

[u/cypher50]

ANY ground stop incident this large should be investigated to make sure it doesn't happen again. Saying otherwise is clown behavior.

[u/Crying-Manchild]

The "never in danger" pisses me off. You don't ground every flight in the US if there wasn't credible danger.

[u/BeyondTired00]

Howdy Doody says it doesn't so, yeah, it does.

[u/CaptainApathy419 → u/BeyondTired00]

It’s nice that we’re six weeks away from never having to listen to him again.

[u/Difficult_Mix_3620]

That’s just what someone who caused a massive outage of a major government service would say.

[u/blazelet]

The ruling class is falling all over themselves to avoid anything that might besmirch AI. It’s highly likely AI tools and rollouts were responsible for this and/or the Microsoft debacle. Ans in both cases they’re shrugging and signaling there’s nothing to see.

The secretary of transportation named and shamed the contractor that he believed caused the problem - it’s a contractor that is all about AI automation of the military.

[u/stevefuzz → u/blazelet]

They probably consulted Claude for what to say as well. AI brain rot at every level.

[u/Oceanbreeze871]

1000% a cyber attack then

[u/SeeMarkFly → u/Oceanbreeze871]

By OUR government.

Found the terrorists. Pulled the plug and asked for $50 BILLION.

[u/leavezukoalone]

Brought to you by the party of "fiscal responsibility," asking for $50b while telling you there's no need for you to question 1) what the problem was, or 2) what this money will be spent on.

[u/sohcahtoa]

Not doing anything has been the Republican approach to most things since lazy trump seized the party. Laziness is contagious, and as long as they all agree to sit down hard with their thumb up their asses then there is no accountability for their failures.

[u/KennyLog1n]

If you don't need an investigation, you don't need $50 billion of OUR dollars.
You want $50 billion? Pay for it yourself, Donald.

[u/Akerlof → u/KennyLog1n]

At this point, an investigation is just doing due diligence before pouring more money into the system.

[u/designOraptor]

That means that we absolutely need to investigate.

[u/Character-Prompt-229]

Not from the US, so that is really not my problem. However, we would not let this go where I live. Damage is astronomical, flight companies are going to sue to get some (if not all) of the money back. Someone has to pay for it and it usually ends up with the ones who fucked up.

Maybe it works differently outside of modern constitutional states which follow rule of law.

[u/thebootsesrules]

Do they not understand the Streisand effect?

[u/Conscious-Quarter423]

The media basically demanded Obama personally get in a submarine, go to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and fix the BP-Deepwater Horizon blow out. The FAA shuts down all air travel for 7 hours, Trump doesn't say a word about it, and the media shrugs.

[u/Rock-Ski-Golf-Repeat]

Actually, we definitely do. Stupid people tried to implement something outside of their understanding. Sean Duffy and his son in law need to get fucked.

[u/omeganaut]

Excuse me???  A historical level event should be swept under the rug??  These people have no shame and deserve everything coming their way.  Call your representatives and say no to Schumer and no to Jeffries, or things like this will never have consequences 

[u/BillyJoeFromBawlmer]

If someone is asking for $50b to fix ‘something’, sure need to independently confirm whether the root cause is what they said. That’s what Congress is supposed to do before they commit funding- that said, that’s why Johnson is leaving

[u/Conscious-Quarter423]

Did they try turning off the aviation industry and turning it back on again?

Oh wait

[u/ehs06702]

This is not dispelling my belief that this was part of a false flag operation to scam as much money out of the taxpayers as possible before January comes.

[u/seraph741]

If Republicans say something shouldn't be investigated, that means that thing most definitely SHOULD be investigated.

[u/PlutoJones42]

Trump fucked over tons of people’s travel plans for a stunt so Trump and Duffy can funnel more money into the pockets of friends and cronies.

Duffy’s son received a large campaign donation from a company that Sean Duffy awarded a no-bid contract of $785,000,000 of your tax dollars to.

[u/rolandinspace]

Any time someone says “we don’t really need any investigation” is exactly the time when you need an investigation

[u/ComprehensiveCake463]

Who does a massive rollout on Friday the 13th?

[u/joseph4th → u/ComprehensiveCake463]

Who does any sort of rollout on a Friday?!

[u/DontAsk0205]

So, what they’re basically saying is “Don’t investigate our incompetence”.
Did I get that correct?

[u/TikiHead99]

This is actually very useful. By playing this failed Jedi mind trick, Mike Johnson is effectively windmilling his arms around frantically and yelling "HELL YES, you definitely need an investigation! There's really, really stupid and corrupt stuff going on right here! It would be VERY VERY embarrassing!"

[u/iamcamperjoe]

Well that makes it pretty clear that Sleazy Donald’s incompetent regime is responsible for it

[u/Ryan1980123]

Because they planned it all. Just like all the fake assignation attempts.

[u/Mr_IT]

Incredible. Absolutely stunning. Republicans you have completely destroyed your party forever. For Donal Trump.

[u/bzee77]

This administration is a tragic joke. It was nice that they were rebuked in the last election, but the apathy and ignorance that allowed this to happen two years ago still stands a chance to be the effective end of the American experiment. With everything going on in the world and our future literally in the balance with how the future of AI is handled, there could never have been a worst time in history to have these fascist stupid and corrupt morons in charge

[u/jaycatt7]

Have you called your elected officials about this yet?

[u/Tebasaki]

After firing 1/3 of the air traffic controllers, a day or two after installing slop AI there's a national plane grounding, cancelations, an on-air protection racketeering threat, and this bag of dicks that watches his son's pron says there's nothing to look at.

[u/chunkatron]

A statement like that from a maga is a strong sign an investigation is needed.

[u/Xc03]

This little bitch would’ve been first in line to investigate if it had happened under Buttigieg’s watch.

[u/What-tha-fck_Elon]

This is the most incompetent and corrupt administration and congress I’ve ever witnessed. Cowards.

[u/SirBexley]

This is the mentality of MAGA in all things that could possibly be their fault. Killing fishermen in international waters, that's not something that we should investigate. Biden checked out library books in college he never returned?!?!!!??!! This is the most important thing we can spend our time on right now!!!!

[u/slypig001]

If you were to say this in the private sector, you would be fired almost immediately.

[u/Surv0]

Then they dont need any more money to address what ever problem they created

[u/NeoGeo52]

When he says we don’t need an investigation, we need an investigation.

[u/murbike]

Johnson is a fucking puppet.

[u/wonderlawl]

We don't know what the problem is, but we know it'll cost taxpayers $50bn to fix

Lol

[u/lodemeup]

That means we absolutely must have an investigation.

[u/Pferdeherz]

What? That’s a pretty major error/malfunction Squeaker. I think travelers would like to know what is going on before they travel again.

[u/widdershins13]

I look forward to the seating of a Congress whose members understand that investigations are a part of the job description.

[u/tarun172]

Yes, we do. It needs to be Benghazi style investigations. They need get a taste of our medicine.

[u/log-in_here]

That answer alone is why we need an investigation.

[u/mastyrwerk]

You know that makes me want an investigation even more, right?

[u/MichaelinNeoh]

Nah of course not whoever paid to have the government use their company had their check clear so there’s no need to be concerned.

[u/Turdtastic]

So we need an investigation.

[u/LunarMoon2001]

Aka “we rather really fucked up, embezzled the money Biden allocated, or got hacked.” Maybe all 3