National ground stop lifted as NTX flights remain delayed

The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a ground stop late this evening after placing the blame on what the Trump administration is calling overloaded and outdated systems. Hello, everybody. I'm Heather Hayes. And I'm Steve Eager. The Homeland Security Secretary said new tech merging with an old air traffic system overloaded the entire system. A live look at our two main airports in North Texas tonight. DFW and Love Field flights are resuming and people who have been parked on the tarmac for hours are now allowed to depart. And we've got some video which was taken by Peyton Yeager just after the ground stop was lifted. Hundreds of travelers lining up for customer service after their flights were either delayed or canceled. We're going to get to Peyton in just a minute. She's been at the airport all afternoon and evening. But first, Fox 4's Amelia Jones is in studio with the latest on what exactly happened, Amelia. Yeah. Hi there, Heather and Steve. We just heard from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and he said it was the outdated technology and old telecommunications systems that, quote, overloaded with data and it led to an outage. He called the condition of the air traffic control systems a national emergency. That outage prompted the FAA to issue a nationwide ground stop this afternoon and pull 3,500 planes from the airspace. Now, we have seen issues with the same system before. It's been blamed for previous problems with communication blackouts, delays, and cancellations. There have been calls for years to modernize it, and part of it is getting upgraded. There is a $12.5 billion upgrade happening right now, but Duffy says that's not enough funding to overhaul the entire system. He called on Congress to pass emergency funding. But I'll tell you, by doing nothing, you inject way more risk into the system, right? To use 1980s technology, 1990s software, to use 1970s radar that we don't make parts for anymore, to have an old network, an old network configuration from the 80s versus re-networking the air traffic control system through the FAA. I believe... That should be a priority. And our number one mission when we do any of this is safety. The GOP has had control of both the House and Senate for the first two years of President Trump's term, but Duffy is placing the blame squarely on Congress. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen said there is no connection to the Microsoft outage on Thursday, and there is currently no evidence of a cyber attack or foreign involvement in connection with this outage. But DHS will continue to investigate to be sure. He emphasized that there is no threat to the public. When we start looking at cyber threats, cyber attacks, typically some people is going to raise their hand up and say, hey, we did that. There's no chatter. We haven't seen any footprints, as you would say, or identifications of people that got into the system. It appears that this was mechanically driven. Transportation Secretary Duffy made a point to say that the new tech and updated equipment did not get overloaded. It was strictly the old 1980s hardware. But it was the process of that new tech interacting with the old system that made things go a little haywire. Emergency medical and law enforcement traffic was not grounded today. Duffy said things will be slow going over the next few days, but anticipates air travel will be back to normal operations for the Thanksgiving holiday. Duffy said the FAA is prioritizing large charter planes first, then those smaller aircrafts. Heather. All right, Amelia, thank you. So now we want to go to Fox Sports' Peyton Yeager, who has been at DFW Airport all day. Peyton, I know you've been talking to travelers who have been stuck and kind of hanging around, people who stuck on planes, stuck in the airport. A lot of people behind you now, I guess, waiting in lines. I know. Right. And passengers are still here this evening, Heather, and the ground stop may be over, but this is the ripple effect that we are seeing. These passengers, these customers are in the customer assistance line, and that line is growing this evening. Another question these people have is access to their luggage. Some people told to come back tomorrow and get their bags. Other people say that bags are already headed to their destination. So I know a lot of people are in this line, waiting to speak to an agent, figuring out what to do next. It's just a list of frustrations these passengers have dealt with this afternoon. Take a look. Kind of stuck it out since then. Wes from Florida wedged in the corner of Terminal C since 3.30 p.m. Friday. We'll see. I've considered renting a car, but also car rental prices. Really no updates at all. Other passengers around him trying to make a decision as well, weighing what's ahead for their weekend. The flight board filled with delays. Just a heads up, it's a national ground stop for all aircraft. Update time unknown. The national ground stop affecting people at different points of their flight journey. One man trying to get back to California didn't even bother going through security. When I came to check my bag, they're like, oh, we're not checking no bags because all the flights have been grounded. And I'm confused, like, what do you mean? I thought it was like maybe a delay or something, but it's a nationwide thing. And on the other side of the glass, this cell phone video shows the long line of passengers waiting for customer service. Joy Lindsey of North Texas made it on her flight, but then told to get off. The pilot says, hey, it's going to be a couple of minutes. We're going to see if we actually need to deplane. It wasn't even a couple of minutes. He was right back on and said, we have to deplane. I would rather be relaxing at home than in this airport or stuck on a plane. They said it could be 10 minutes. It could be 30 minutes. We don't know. And I'll let you know as soon as I know. Thanks, Paul. It's been vague. That turned into hours for local DFW sports broadcaster Cash Soroy. He spoke to Fox 4 from the DFW tarmac. In general, they're just trying to keep us all chill. Yeah, it's pretty freaking weird, man. It's just, it's really trippy. It's odd. And Cash, to get back to me, he is finally off of his plane more than five hours. DFW Airport posting on social media asking for passengers to be patient and saying that employees are walking around checking on people. And we have seen some DFW Airport employees making sure people know where they're going. And unfortunately for several people, where they've been told to go So is this long growing line behind me here to. To speak with customer service late into the evening hours. Heather? Oh my gosh. That's such a bummer. I mean. If you've never done that, it's horrible. It feels. This is it. I feel so bad for everyone, but get it. And it is true. That's a problem. Some of these people have been on planes and then de-planed and then now in this line and don't, you know, they've been here all day. And that's what I was thinking about. It's not just one flight delayed. All flights are down. But like, could you imagine this afternoon? It was a ground stop, but you can go ahead and check your luggage. Like, I know they were letting some people. I don't think I would have done that. It's like, keep it with me until we figure out. I don't know. All right. Now we know. Next time we hear that, I'm going to go home. Yeah. I'll travel a little while. And now some people, you know, don't have medication or things that they need inside of their luggage. I had multiple people coming up to me, you know, asking for their luggage. But sometimes it's already on the plane or they're told to come back and get it tomorrow. Well, and we were kind of making a joke out of it. But that is one very real thing that Sean Duffy had brought up earlier. Medication. People need their medication. Now they can't get it. They sit on a plane for five or six hours. A lot of dangerous stuff that we don't think about happening was also happening. For a lot of folks.