An aviation expert said the FAA’s nationwide ground stop on Friday left travelers in limbo and revealed a troubling reality, on the same day the agency reportedly launched a new AI tool.
CNN aviation analyst Miles O’Brien told anchor Jake Tapper that the FAA’s system was “already bursting at the seams” and that some of its technology dates back to World War II. The agency issued the rare stoppage citing communications problems.
"They've got floppy disks, they've got paper strips, and now they're talking about putting AI on top of it," O'Brien said. "It's like putting a rocket booster on a horse and buggy. You got to be really careful on how you manage this whole thing."
A cyber attack has not been ruled out, O'Brien explained.
"We have an incredibly vulnerable system," O'Brien added, saying it could take hours — or longer — for the system to begin running again.
"This is this is a huge mess. It will take a tremendous amount of time to unwind all this," O'Brien said. "This ballet of flights that goes back and forth and through the heroic actions of air traffic controllers working with this old system make it all work. But when it stops, it gets ugly really quickly."