Mullin Says Telecom Outage Caused FAA Ground Stop

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on November 13 that a telecommunications outage prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to issue a ground stop. He briefed reporters as the stop continued, while coverage of the situation was ongoing.

Mullin said there was no indication that the outage was an attack. He also said there was no reason to believe the United States faced a threat.

The explanation ties the FAA action to a telecommunications problem rather than a security incident. The briefings did not provide further details about the outage or say when the ground stop would end.