'This is going to take some time': DHS Sec. Mullin on nationwide ground stop

I don't see any reason to connect those two at all. Those are separate issues. Yes. Just to be clear, can you definitively rule out that this is not a cyber attack? And how long do you expect this outage to last? What is the cause of it? So we're working with Secretary Duffy on this. We're not ruling out anything at this point. The first thing is the safety of everybody that's flying. We are assured that everybody is safe, everybody that's going to be in the air that's currently on the plane. Loved ones, as I said, we're going to get you on the ground and we're doing a safe manner. To say that we can rule out anything, that's not what we do at this point. The first thing we want to do is make sure everybody is safe and we restore operations. Yes. Secretary, can you talk about the specific system that is being affected right now? And we have seen some planes land at specific airports. Is that going to be the case that all airports, any flights in the air will be allowed to land? The flights that are currently in the air, we have a ground stoppage, we still got to get the flights out, right? And so we're going to be dealing with those case by case. That's the case. I think you said specific, it's a telecommunication outage. I'm not going to get ahead of FAA, that's their lane to talk about. We were wanting to assure all the American people this isn't a safety to the American people or another 9-11. I think that's what a lot of people are trying to make the comparison to, and that's not the case. And in briefing the president, what kind of call of government response is there? We're throwing, everyone that has a stake in this, everybody's involved right now. So this is unprecedented when you see something like this. And we're going to continue to throw the assets we need at it to make sure that, not to repeat myself, but that we get the flights down and then we get the normal operations back up. But there was... Several of us that was involved in it, yes, right back here, back here, blue tie, sorry. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. So is it currently the communications is down as we speak right now? Yes. And then secondly, there is, let me explain, we are able to communicate at certain levels, but it's overwhelmed some of the systems we have. Once again, Sean Duffy, Secretary Duffy, is on this. He was on the phone earlier with with the president and several of us and they're doing a phenomenal job in a crisis mode. That's too early to tell. That's too early to tell right now. There are reports that this may last about seven hours right now, and the pilots are telling these people. Is that the time frame you're looking at? We have not discussed any time frame. Thank you. I'll just think about this as a whole. If I have a loved one at the airport, That's what I'm looking for. just to get everybody started back up and the flight's going again, it's going to take some time. And so this isn't going to just be resolved. And it turned around within the hour. This is gonna take some time. But once again, everybody is safe, the flights are accounted for, and there should be no fear to the public at all. And this one. Yes, yes. Can you explain, just the president has been briefed, you've talked to him? Yes. And then- Well, I wasn't the only person in the room, obviously. And then there are thoughts that, this could be an AI related error or issue. We call it SI. You just can't rule out anything at this point. We're going through that process and we're going to find out what happened. And when we do, we'll take the, you know, the appropriate actions to make sure it doesn't happen again. While you're investigating, are there any extra precautions that are going on for the president to keep him safe while you're still investigating? Well, there's no fear to the public. I want to make sure we say this again. There's no reason for the public to be afraid or scared for your loved ones. This isn't another Another 9/11. I just can't repeat that enough. People are making that assumption because that's the last time we had a nationwide ground stoppage. This is a telecommunication outage. This is much different. And just following up on Caitlin's question, there are reports that the FAA was rolling out a new AI traffic control system today. Has there been any link between that? We're looking at that. Not that, that word. That's part of something that obviously through CISA at DHS, Yes, we are. we're taking a look, we're working with our counterparts throughout all agencies. Are there plans in the air that the FAA isn't able to do? No, no. It's just at a different level. The clarity is my understanding. So I'm not trying to get ahead of myself on this one. My understanding is that we can still communicate. It's just that it's at different levels in the clarity that we can get to. But there's redundancy in most communications. So as you can see, there's still planes landing. And so there's still communications going on. And we add an abundant of caution is what is the reason why we decided to ground everything. Thank you very much for being here and thank you for everything. Let me go here. Thank you, sir. This is a ground stop for the United States. Yes. Is this affecting other countries as well? Not that we're aware of. There's two areas that we know that are not affected. I don't think I'm I think I'm at... the ability to share those right now. But there's two areas inside the United States that are still able to communicate just fine. Mr. Secretary, I don't understand that. What does that mean? And can you describe who is helping in investigating the root cause of it as far as what agencies? Worth it. Every agency that has an asset that is involved in this from the communications side, FFA, DOW, State Department, we're all working together. But that's what we do. Right. And I don't want to say that this is a crisis, but it is because we're downing where, you know, we had to do a nationwide ground stoppage. It's what the government works well at. That's what we're here for. And so we are well positioned I'm a patient. and communicating very well. The president took a lead in this immediately and he gave us the assets and the communication to move forward in a fast way. That's what leaders do. And President Trump's the best at leading us. I haven't got you. Go ahead. You say this is not a 9-11-style event, but if it is a widespread telecommunications issue, could there in theory be a cyber attack related to some sort of terror, a version of terror, but the modern-day cyber version? This isn't the same comparison to 9-11. That's a road I won't go down, but people are making that assumption because it's a stoppage. Do we know what has caused it yet? No, we're going to go through it, but I'm not going to make assumptions. As I've said multiple times, it's very difficult to make assumptions. We want to always deal with facts, and we're going to deal with facts, and as we get them, we'll roll them out to you guys, all right? Thank you, guys.