The federal contractor blamed by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for Friday’s nationwide ground stop has broken its silence.
As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier, Duffy delivered a briefing on flight operations at 10:30 am ET on Saturday, sharing more details regarding yesterday’s nationwide ground stop that has left over 1 million people stranded.
During the press conference, Duffy confirmed that investigators are looking at whether a contractor error or a faulty router caused a failure in the nation’s air traffic control system.
He specifically pointed the finger at L3 Harris, saying the workers were upgrading communication routers at a “remote location” when the system went down.
“What we’re working to determine is whether we had incompetence from L3 Harris…Or did they install a faulty router,” Duffy added.
BREAKING: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says investigators are examining whether a contractor error or a faulty router caused a failure in the nation’s air traffic control system.
Duffy says the problem emerged during an upgrade from copper to fiber, when a router being replaced began flooding other routers in the network.
Officials are now working to determine whether the contractor made an installation error or the equipment itself malfunctioned.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 14, 2026
Hours after Duffy’s accusation, L3 Harris released a statement to Fox News defending itself.
The company said it had been “modernizing the communications infrastructure supporting the National Airspace System in close coordination with the FAA,” and that it had “completed more than 70% of the planned airspace communications conversion from legacy copper wires to a fiber optic system.”
L3 Harris added that they were cooperating with the FAA in the investigation.
“We are supporting the FAA in its investigation to understand the conditions that led to the Nov. 13 ground stop of our nation’s air travel,” the company said.
“L3Harris takes the nationwide ground stop and its impact on travelers, airlines, and air traffic operations seriously,” it added.
L3Harris’s website states that it provides advanced fuzing and ordnance systems to the U.S. Department of War.
It also develops advanced weapons and electronic systems for military applications.
Furthermore, L3Harris serves as one of the largest suppliers of tactical radios and other forms of communications equipment to the U.S. military.
Ad block users: Some site features may not work correctly while an ad blocker is enabled, because they break scripts and content this website depends on. If you can’t see comments below, for example, please disable your ad blocker.
