>>> Wearing to follow the really
wild development that brought
air travel to a standstill.
It's still causing big flight
disruptions.
The FAA did lift the ground
stop, and flights are resuming,
which is great news, but this
also now in its place, already
big questions.
Secretary buttigieg, thank you
for your time.
What is your understanding of
what happened today?
>> This was a saved system that
produces ntam.
, Notices to air missions.
What it is is a standardized,
uniform way for getting
important safety messages out to
airports, aircraft and airlines.
For example, if a runway is
closed, or if there is a
military or space operation
coming up in a certain sector,
or maybe a navigation beacon is
out, something that a pilot
would need to know.
Very important, of course, for
that information to be flowing
efficiently.
Somewhere overnight there were
irregularities that reflected a
bigger systems issue.
This morning, as of about 7:00,
there were still problems
validating that the message were
going on
.
>> That has happened.
That's the good news.
Flights are operating.
We'll see the ripple effects
working through the system
during the day.
Now we have to understand how
this happened in the first play.
>> Any indication there was a
cyberattack involved?
>> There's no direct evidence of
that, but we also won't rule it
out until we have a clear and
better understanding of what's
taking place
.
When something like this
happens, does the FAA need to do
the same?
>> Well, certainly when there's
an issue with the FAA that needs
to be looked at, we will own it,
same as we asked the airlines to
own their operations.
But the bottom line is always
safety.
It's an extraordinary things
that millions of passengers fly
through the air, and it's the
safest way to travel.
We work very hard to keep it
that way, including being
extremely conservative.
It's an extraordinary record.
When it comes to -- we equally
have to make sure they have the
staffing and the operations it
needs.
Is this system out of date?
>> Well, the system is
continuously being upgraded and
improved, but that's a key
question we have to look at
based on what we saw overnight.
And I welcome the attention from
congress, especially because
we're coming up on the
reauthorization of the five-year
bill that provides funding and
direction for the FAA.
It's the right time to take up
those questions.
>> More broadly -- I'm just
going to call it a computer
glitch, to know there's more
technical terms for what
happened -- if this one issue
can essentially terrorize the
system, even for an hour and a
half, how vulnerable is the
system?
Should people be worried
?
I think that broker question is
a.
>> What you saw this morning was
something we haven't seen in a
very long time.
We need to design in a field
that's changing a lot, but we
need to design a system that
does not have those
vulnerabilities.
>> Really quick, do you see what
happened this morning as
acceptable?
Does this -- I know you say out
of an abundance of caution, that
they had to put the ground stop
in place, secretary, but if this
happens again -- and it doesn't
sound like now you can
>> It is the right call, to act
out of an abundance of caution.
No, these kind of disruptions
should not happen.
My primary interest, now that