Milan, Nov. 14 (LaPresse) – US President Donald Trump is urging Congress to approve legislation as soon as possible to modernise air traffic control, airport control towers, terminals and other key infrastructure. According to CNN, which cites an informed source, Trump spoke by phone on Friday evening with Republican Senator Eric Schmitt, who called the president ahead of a White House briefing. Schmitt, a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, introduced the “Modern Skies Act” in September, which would provide an additional $30 billion in federal funding to upgrade the country’s aviation infrastructure. CNN, again citing the source, reports that the Trump administration sent a letter to Congress on Friday morning, just hours before the nationwide flight disruptions, requesting the additional $30 billion in funding. The letter, signed by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, was sent to the leadership of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has already replaced thousands of old copper cables with fibre-optic lines and upgraded hundreds of radio systems as part of the overhaul launched last year, after Congress approved $12.5 billion in funding. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the White House are seeking an additional $30 billion to complete the work. Duffy accused Congress of failing to approve further funding for new technologies, while playing down the fact that efforts to implement new solutions had overloaded the system, and suggested that further disruptions could occur. “We did not think we would have this kind of disruption. But it happened,” he said. “We were able to figure out what went wrong, so we rebooted the system and got it back up and running, but there will be others like it.” Duffy said the problems were not connected to the new artificial intelligence-based system that the FAA is implementing to help predict problems during flights. “This is entirely old, outdated equipment. None of the new equipment that has been installed experienced any disruptions,” he said. Yesterday’s problem appeared similar to a regional air traffic control communications outage in September, which disrupted hundreds of flights across the northeastern United States, although that incident was attributed to a construction crew cutting a fibre-optic line. Outdated equipment was instead blamed for the brief radar outages that disrupted operations at Newark Airport last year. Security expert Steve Arroyo, a former United Airlines pilot, said the difference this time was that the incident occurred on a nationwide scale, preventing controllers from reliably communicating with pilots. “If you do not have that capability, either because the old cables in use are simply worn out or for any other reason, you have to keep aircraft on the ground and prevent them from taking off, where you would risk being unable to communicate with them,” he said.
US: CNN, Trump urges Congress to approve $30 billion to modernise air traffic control
Milan, Nov. 14 (LaPresse) – US President Donald Trump is urging Congress to approve legislation as soon as possible to modernise air traffic control, airport control towers, terminals and other key infrastructure. According to CNN, which cites an informed source, Trump spoke by phone on Friday evening with Republican Senator Eric Schmitt, who called the president ahead of a White House briefing. Schmitt, a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, introduced the “Modern Skies Act” in September, which would provide an additional $30 billion in federal funding to upgrade the country’s aviation infrastructure. CNN, again citing the source, reports that the Trump administration sent a letter to Congress on Friday morning, just hours before the nationwide flight disruptions, requesting the additional $30 billion in funding. The letter, signed by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, was sent to the leadership of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has already replaced thousands of old copper cables with fibre-optic lines and upgraded hundreds of radio systems as part of the overhaul launched last year, after Congress approved $12.5 billion in funding. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the White House are seeking an additional $30 billion to complete the work. Duffy accused Congress of failing to approve further funding for new technologies, while playing down the fact that efforts to implement new solutions had overloaded the system, and suggested that further disruptions could occur. “We did not think we would have this kind of disruption. But it happened,” he said. “We were able to figure out what went wrong, so we rebooted the system and got it back up and running, but there will be others like it.” Duffy said the problems were not connected to the new artificial intelligence-based system that the FAA is implementing to help predict problems during flights. “This is entirely old, outdated equipment. None of the new equipment that has been installed experienced any disruptions,” he said. Yesterday’s problem appeared similar to a regional air traffic control communications outage in September, which disrupted hundreds of flights across the northeastern United States, although that incident was attributed to a construction crew cutting a fibre-optic line. Outdated equipment was instead blamed for the brief radar outages that disrupted operations at Newark Airport last year. Security expert Steve Arroyo, a former United Airlines pilot, said the difference this time was that the incident occurred on a nationwide scale, preventing controllers from reliably communicating with pilots. “If you do not have that capability, either because the old cables in use are simply worn out or for any other reason, you have to keep aircraft on the ground and prevent them from taking off, where you would risk being unable to communicate with them,” he said.