Shafaq News- Washington

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday that officials were working to locate and replace the remaining copper wiring in the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) communications network, a day after an outage halted flight departure nationwide.

The disruption occurred Friday while a contractor was replacing an old copper wire in a telecommunications system, prompting the FAA to ground flights across the country.

More than 70% of the network's copper connections have already been replaced with fiber-optic cables, according to Duffy. “You can’t lay fiber all over the country in a month,” he told reporters, adding that crews were working “fast and safely” to complete the upgrades.

NOW: Air travel update from USDOT HQ https://t.co/mbCWxKPm6O

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 14, 2026

The FAA has since lifted the restrictions, but delays and cancellations are expected to continue after thousands of passengers were stranded and hundreds of flights diverted.