Trump Blames Biden Legacy and Demands Urgent Funding in First Comment on Aviation Crisis

In his first statements regarding the halt of air traffic across the country, US President Donald Trump blamed the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden on Sunday.

US authorities had suspended all flights for several hours on Friday due to a stalled technical update, an incident that Trump attributed to the previous administration's handling of the aviation sector, which he described as a "disaster."

The US President said: "They ruined everything they touched. Massive amounts of money were spent without planning, making an old and dilapidated system worse than it was when they started."

He continued: "We have the knowledge and the necessary plan to develop air traffic control systems; all we need is for Congress to approve the required funding as quickly as possible," adding: "The Federal Aviation Administration is doing a great job and is ready to move forward."

Has air traffic returned to normal?
Two days after a comprehensive stoppage of flights due to communication line repairs, US authorities hope that air navigation will gradually return to normal by Sunday evening.

The flight tracking website "FlightAware" reported the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights for Sunday until the early morning hours, after counting 6,400 cancellations out of 41,000 scheduled flights on Saturday.

The Civil Aviation Authority had announced the cancellation of 12,000 flights on Friday.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Brian Bedford predicted on Saturday that full resumption of flights would occur by Sunday.

The comprehensive stoppage of flights on Friday left travelers across the country in a state of anticipation and confusion, especially since some were removed from planes moments before takeoff while airline employees appeared unable to explain the situation.

Fixing the glitch
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy explained on Saturday that the decision to halt flights on Friday came after maintenance work aimed at replacing old copper wires with high-speed fiber optic cables, which caused "problems" related to aircraft connectivity and radar data.

He added: "Either due to an error on the contractor's part or a faulty piece of equipment... it started by flooding other routers in our air traffic control system."

This was only the second time a flight ban was issued in US airspace, one of the busiest in the world, since the September 11 attacks in 2001.