A communications problem with the nation’s Air Traffic Control System has led to the FAA grounding flights (It’s officially a Nationwide Ground Stop) nationwide. This hasn’t happened since 9/11 and given why it happened then it’s natural for everyone’s mind to leap to ‘terrorism.’ I’m not going to tell you to chill out, but yes you should take a deep breath before leaping to that. Or even that this administration which isn’t known for transparency is covering up a potential cyber attack by either Iran or some other entity engaging in terrorism. I also want to note there has been communications with planes – they have been landing safely. In other words an important part of the system is experiencing an outage but much of it is working like it should.
Of course, cable news networks are featuring this story and nothing else. Mostly it’s repeating the same stuff over and over as news outlets are wont to do. I’ve criticized this crap in the past as ‘talent’ (the on-air hosts and pundits) using something like this to take a break of sorts. Abandon everything else so they can blather the same tidbits over and over. In any case we know the basics. There’s a communications problem affecting air traffic centers nationwide that is serious enough to get planes on the ground until it’s sorted out. I checked online and found this BBC coverage which is a series of brief, to the point updates. It’s worth noting the headline reads:
Flights grounded across US as homeland security secretary says no indication of an attack
I saw none other than DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin answering questions and downplaying the terrorist angle. It can’t and shouldn’t be of course ignored by DHS. However Mullin made a point of saying the ground stop of flights is being taken ‘out of an abundance of caution.’ I’m almost always critical of him and if he was on fire and screamed he was burning I’d have trouble believing him. So why do I this time? Ask yourself this: If they had even a half-assed indication this was some cyber-terrorist attack would they hide it? Hell no – they’d be shouting it with a megaphone! Instead they are saying it’s a telecommunications outage (and I’d add a partial one at that) and there’s no terrorist or law enforcement aspect they’ve identified. That folks is why I said out the outset to take a breath and calm down.
***Update – I was reviewing this before hitting the Publish button and reporting is that this was caused by a software update. (I’ll refrain from snark, at least for now)***
Is what’s going on serious? Well of course it is. Mullin also made the point this isn’t something that will get resolved in an hour or two. What he didn’t say, but pundits are talking about some is that the nation’s air traffic control system has long needed to be upgraded. Multiple administrations have made less than satisfactory efforts and progress because of the cost. It’s a helluva lot of money to install fully modern systems that can continue to be upgraded as needed AND to do it while maintaining the old one. AND when the time comes switching over to the new system without what in engineering parlance are called ‘glitches’ but in the real world and for something like this means stuff like ‘planes crashing into each other both in the sky and on the ground.’ (FYI, the complexity of ground traffic control, planes taxing around major airports would if you knew the full picture make your blood run cold)
Plans of course have been developed and proposed, but deficit hawks have balked at the cost. This is one of those times where there’s been the wrong kind of bi-partisanship. By that I mean those who see how critical it is to do what has to be done (spend the money) giving in to the ‘we can’t afford it/we’ve got to do it for far less than what’s being proposed’ folks and in the end the can gets kicked down the road. There comes a point when that has serious consequences. Like now.
I’m reminded of an example all of us older folks remember. The “Y2K” mess when for over a decade computer systems were set to start crashing because at midnight on December 31, 1999 countless computer programs would, because the ‘year’ part of the date be the digits ’00’ go haywire, not knowing whether it was 1900 or 2000. It affected major corporations and banks who kept putting off doing away with COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) because they didn’t want to spend the money. They wound up paying far more to deal with Y2K than if they’d accepted a hit on the quarterly balance sheet.
Air Traffic Control is a worse version. The system, or a part of it going down leads to disruptions that ripple through the economy. Think of the hit we took over the suspension of air travel after 9/11. Worse, it can lead to crashes.
I can’t write this without mentioning a system already under major stress got pushed to an insane level of it when Trump got back into office. Yes, I’m talking about among other things Elon Musk and his DOGE Boyz who laid off thousands and cut some parts of the system with a ‘this/that redundancy is wasteful’ or ‘there’s better stuff that can be done than this’ tech bro approach. An article from The Air Current provides a good explanation for what took place. Staffing cuts weren’t just controllers but also maintenance people who as I said are already trying to keep an antiquated system functioning at a time when air travel keeps increasing!
DOGE created a cluster-f**k which was quickly apparent. Some rehiring took place after a lawsuit but not everyone got their job back. Also, there have been ripple effects as this article from Reuters details:
U.S. District Judge James Bredar in Baltimore directed the administration to reinstate tens of thousands of federal workers, saying 18 agencies that fired probationary employees en masse violated regulations governing the process for laying off federal workers. The government had claimed it fired individual workers for performance reasons.
There were no invividualized assessments of employees. they were all just fired,’ bredar said.
the union said those who were fired in february inclided technical operations, mission support services, air traffic services and flight standards service.
‘haphazardly elimination postitions and encouraging resignations creates a demoralizing effect on the workforce,” spero said. “we are pleased that the expungement of these letters referencing the fals performance claims allows these employees to contintue their service to the flying public without this unsubstantiated blemish on their work record.”
the trump administration sent air traffic controllers buyout offers but later said they were not elegible, also declaring other safety officials, including transportation security administration officers, ineligible.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
