Nationwide ground stop and Miami airport plane collision

We came to almost a halt essentially across the country. Obviously planes in the air could stay in the air, but this is coming from Flight Radar 24. You can see thousands of planes flying over the U.S. and that just slowly dwindled down over the course of that four hours for that ground stop. And so obviously lots of questions that have to be answered about. How something like this could happen so they can prevent it again in the future. As you heard from Secretary Duffy and also the FAA administrator, they do not believe this was a cyber attack. But questions remain about how the problem spread so far. So I want to bring in an expert to talk about this. Joining us live is Greg Sanfilippo, a security and risk expert with Doyle Security Services and a former supervisor with NPD's counter. with NYPD's Counterterrorism Intelligence Sharing Program. Greg, I appreciate your time. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. Good morning, Tyler. Well, so Greg, obviously they don't believe that this was an attack of some sort or a rogue nation attacking the U.S. in this situation. But obviously there's lots of questions about how all of this unfolded because obviously you think there would be some backup plans here. What stands out most to you about what we're hearing? Well, first, the investigation, the information came out was slow. It added to a little bit of confusion, whether this was a cyber incident or just a tech issue. So once the investigators started with the same way they would backtrack in a crime investigation, When the incident happened, start going back through. Going back to evidence, right, but here on the digital side, they're going through digital logs, going through access logs, just making sure that this wasn't anything nefarious, so that it took time added to a bit of the confusion, and now that we're getting down to finding out that this was most likely a tech issue, it takes us out of the investigation from criminal activity, but it doesn't make this any more simpler. It's, in fact, probably more. More complex now than had it just been a cyber attack. So how did the investigators go about figuring out whether it was something deliberate or it was just something, a technical failure of some sort? Because obviously in situations like this, they have to be able to get to the bottom of this. And at this point, they have determined that it seems to be a technical issue. But how would they get to the root of the problem to know whether this was an attack of some sort or whether this was more of a technical issue like they're saying? So as the secretary mentioned, they're still going through that root cause analysis. But initially, they're going through the digital laws, making sure that no one accessed the system. Okay, and once they figure out who had been in the system prior to the failure, then it becomes a little tedious. You're having to go through making sure each one of those person's actions were consistent with what they're supposed to be doing in the system. And as they start ruling out, nefarious activity, then at the same time, you have those technical analysts going through and looking at other causes. And in here, it was most likely caused by some sort of upgrade to the system, which is very archaic and it needs a whole lot of upgrading. I think everyone can agree on that. We've had issues over the last couple of years where not as bad as this, but we've had different technical failures where they have to ground some planes, maybe not nationwide. But this is such a critical system. And as like a security and risk expert like you are, I mean, you think there would be some backup plans or other things in place to be able to make sure that the nation's airspace doesn't have to be shut down. Very concerning. From a tech standpoint, it's a lot of work needs to go into this. From a risk standpoint, even though that this wasn't a bad actor, wasn't a cyber attack, it now puts in the press and the highlights that the system is archaic. So now you have other cyber threat actors and it's not something that is unheard of. 2024, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. had been hit with a cyber attack. It didn't affect any flight systems. It affected a lot of the airport operations. So, you know, now it's a highlighted vulnerability. And not only is it a cyber vulnerability, because there's a crossover when with a lot of people standing around, it becomes a physical security issue. So, you know, cyber, we just look at it as just a tech. But it crosses over into physical security and it really just becomes a hornet's nest, a big mess. So, you know, closing up this vulnerability is very crucial. I think it's probably safe to say that they're going to have to rebuild some trust right now. I mean, obviously, the incident over the Potomac about two years ago when you had two plane collided with a helicopter, that obviously caused some concern. And there was obviously ramifications from that. And they're working on making sure something like that doesn't happen again. This is technology which resulted. In this ground stop, what would you have to see and what would make you feel more comfortable that a third investigation was done to make sure that our nation's airspace can stay open in regards to how our infrastructure is built? I'd like to see that root cause analysis and that investigation pointing to facts and not pointing fingers at. Who's most responsible because it's a complex system. It's a public transportation system, but like most infrastructure in the country, a lot of it's owned by the private sector and private corporations. So we're already starting to see a little bit of finger pointing back and forth. Is it a subcontractor's fault? Whose fault is it? In the bottom line, it doesn't matter whose Whose fault it was? Let's find out what happened, why it happened, fix it. And, you know, keep American flyers safe. Well, Greg Sanfilippo from VP of Doyle Security Services, I appreciate your time this morning to break all this down for us. Obviously, a concerning incident that obviously hopefully they get to figure out to the point where they can make sure something like this doesn't happen again. I appreciate your time and your expertise. My pleasure, Tyler. Thanks so much. And let's talk about the Atlanta airport right now and just talk about the impact there. So obviously, Atlanta travelers are feeling it as flight operations try to recover. We're hearing from passengers impacted by thousands of delays and cancellations over the last 40 hours or so. Here at Hartsfield-Jackson, delays are at about 70 flights right now and 100 cancellations, and that number is growing. Passengers we caught up with this morning are now trying to see if they can secure a rental car to get to a funeral. The original flight was for today, November 15th, and it was for 7. It was for like 7.05. However, they canceled it all of a sudden. Like we had got a message earlier saying your flight has been canceled. Go to the app to see details. And we're like, why would they cancel? What's the point? So they basically was telling us that they were short staff. I'm like, where did everybody go? Where's the staff at? Bring them back. We need them here because we got somewhere to be. We are going to see our grandma because unfortunately she has... So we're trying to get to Florida. However, with this whole situation, it's just, it's, it's annoying. It's annoying because, you know, we had to find a new flight. We had this awful Uber driver. We had, you know, to wait in the line. They were telling her that basically she didn't check in. How she ain't check in, but she got a check bag. Like that don't make no sense. So I'm like, is the app messed up? So y'all don't have no staff. Y'all app is messed up. Y'all got all these people early in the morning waiting in this long line. People got things to do, places to be. And I'm not going to sit here and wait all day because we have to, we have to. So at this point, we're just like, okay, let's just call it. We'll try to find a car, and at this point, let's just go because it definitely looked like it was going to be at least another hour and a half before we even talked to somebody. Yeah, you got to feel bad for the people who are just stuck in all of this because it is incredibly frustrating not to be able to get home or get to wherever you're trying to go. We should mention that Delta Airlines is offering a waiver in this case, but for a lot of people, that waiver isn't going to do much if they can't actually get to where they're going. But we'll have all the details on our website, Fox5Atlanta.com. And coming up in about 15 minutes, we're going to be talking with a woman who actually had to get into an Uber here Here at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport and then had to. Go all the way to Nashville. That's almost a four-hour drive. We're going to be chatting with her about her experience just ahead. But I want to tell you about some more breaking news we're following. And this happened late last night at Miami International Airport. Take a look at this. You can see a Copa Airlines plane and a UPS jet. So get this. We're learning two jets collided on a taxiway in Miami when a departing flight and arriving flight made contact at the intersection of two taxiways. That's according to Miami International Airport's communications officials. Air traffic control workers were in immediate contact with both planes involved to track and give instructions to both of them. Take a listen. All right, Roger. Wait. 358, did you hit that aircraft? Yeah, there's damage to the nose of one of the planes, and we should mention Miami-Dade fire rescue officials say two patients on scene were checked out with minor injuries, but neither were transported to the hospital.