The FAA issued a nationwide groundstop on Friday the 13th, halting flights across the country. The government tied it to a communications failure and said there was no evidence of a cyberattack or sign that the SMART AI air traffic system was responsible. The cause of the failure has not been specified.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a national groundstop on Friday the 13th, halting flights across the country and instantly throwing airline schedules around the world into chaos. The stop was tied to a communications failure, the government said.
Was the FAA Groundstop Caused by a Cyberattack?
The administration quickly said there was no evidence of a cyberattack. It also said there was no sign that SMART, a new AI-infused air traffic management system, had anything to do with the failure.
Could the SMART AI System Have Caused the Groundstop?
That reassurance did not settle the question for everyone. When asked Friday night whether he could definitively rule out an AI failure, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin declined to close the door. “There’s nothing certain right now,” he said.
SMART had been promoted publicly only weeks earlier. On September 27, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted a video on X with the words “GAME CHANGER.” “Introducing ‘SMART’—the new air traffic management tool that saves YOU time, cuts back DELAYS, and makes your flying experience BETTER,” he wrote.
Almost three weeks later, that post took on a different meaning. Many people online treated it as a grim joke after the groundstop hit.
The reporting available does not say how long the groundstop lasted or how many flights were affected. It also does not specify the source of the communications failure.
Este artigo foi escrito com a assistência de IA.
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