A routine-sounding update to a private communications network, not AI, is the leading explanation for Friday's nationwide FAA ground stop, according to sources cited by CBS News.
CBS News reported, citing multiple people with knowledge of the incident, that the update forced the network air traffic controllers use to reboot. That interrupted communications at the nation's 22 regional air traffic control centers. A ground stop holds flights at their departure airports, and this one caused major delays for thousands of flights and nearly all domestic travelers. The FAA had not given a cause, and as of 6 p.m. ET Friday, insiders said it was still investigating.
The vacuum filled quickly. Social media users pointed to SMART, the FAA's new AI-powered traffic system (the name stands for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories), and to a recent Microsoft outage. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officials couldn't "rule anything out" when asked about AI. Air Space Intelligence, which makes SMART, denied involvement. Microsoft said it has "no indication" the stoppage is related to its services.
The CBS account rests on anonymous sources, and the FAA has not confirmed it. Still, it describes a failure in plumbing rather than in a headline technology. The FAA is in the middle of a broad modernization push, including retiring floppy disks for weather and airport status data, but nothing in the reporting ties that work to this outage.
A comparison is instructive. The nationwide ground stop of January 11, 2023, was also a systems failure rather than weather or an attack. Both events show how a single communications or data fault can halt flights across the country. The open question is why a network update could take down all 22 centers at once.