DHS secretary says ground stop 'not another 9/11'

What a day, right? Just to make sure we understand, there is no indication and we had no reason to believe that as of right now that this was a threat to the United States. This was a telecommunication outage throughout FAA. Out of abundant caution, we have grounded all the flights. And all the flights are accounted for as incoming flights, either internationally or the flights that are currently still in the air. We'll be dealing with those case by case. As you can imagine, there will be a Priority list as they start coming in, but as I will repeat myself, there was no prior indication. There was no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack against us. It's just a telecommunication outage as of right now. . You're saying that there's no indication yet? Well, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves anytime something like this happens. I mean, the last time I believe that we've had a national ground stoppage was 9/11. Of course, in DHS, we're getting a ton of calls saying, is this a terrorist attack? Is this a terrorist attack? Everybody's safe. There is no reason... To be concerned about your loved ones, if they're flying, or anything like that. I just want to make sure everybody's at ease about that. As we investigate what caused this, you always got to assume that as many cyber attacks that take place, that you make that assumption. But as of right now, that's not known. So we're going to continue to work. The first thing we want to do is make sure we restore the communications. We get all the flights on the ground. And then we get back to normal operations. But we're going to continue to work to find out what the root of the cause is. So if your assessment is that Microsoft yesterday, the FAA today is a coincidence? I don't see any reason to connect those two at all. Those are separate issues, yes. Just to be clear, do you rule out that this is not a cyber attack? 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. Eric. Everybody that's going to be in the air that's currently on a plane, loved ones, as I said, we're going to get you on the ground, and we're doing it in 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. Yes. The flights that are currently in the air, we have a ground stoppage. We've still got to get the flights out, right? And so we're going to be dealing with those case by case. Thank you very much. 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. 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. Back here. Blue tide. Sorry. Yes. 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 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. Is there a report that there were seven hours? We have not discussed any time frame. I'll just think about this as a whole. If I have a loved one at the airport, just to get everybody started back up and the flights going again, it's going to take some time. And so this isn't going to just be... Be resolved and turned around within the hour. This is going to 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 in this one. Yes. Thank you very much. Yes. Well, I wasn't the only person in the room, obviously. 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 appropriate actions to make sure it doesn't happen again. While you're down for the system, are there any extra precautions that are going on at the present while you're still listening? 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 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. We're looking at that. That's part of something that obviously through CISA at DHS, we are taking a look, we're working with our counterparts throughout all agencies. We'll No, no. It's just at a different level. be The clarity is my understanding. So I'm not trying to get ahead of myself on this one. right My understanding is that we can still communicate. It's just that it's at different levels and clarity that we can get to. But there's redundancy in most communications. back. 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. Let me go here. Yes. Not that we're aware of. There's two areas that we know that are not affected. I don't 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. I don't understand. What does that mean? We're, every agency that has an asset that is involved in this from the communication side, FAA, DOT, 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 down, 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 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. President Trump's the best at leading us. Sorry. I haven't got you. Go ahead. Thank you very much. Well, you can't... This isn't the same comparison to 9-11. That is... 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.