A bipartisan group of more than 100 House lawmakers is demanding that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg provide answers to Wednesday’s air-traffic shutdown, which they called “completely unacceptable.”
(Bloomberg) — A bipartisan group of more than 100 House lawmakers is demanding that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg provide answers to Wednesday’s air-traffic shutdown, which they called “completely unacceptable.”
A letter to Buttigieg on Friday sought more information on what caused a US Federal Aviation Administration notification system to go offline, which prompted a rare halt to all domestic departures and triggered thousands of delays and cancellations. It also promised “vigorous oversight” of the agency’s attempts to upgrade the 30-year-old computer system.
Read more: Flight Chaos Puts Harsh Spotlight on FAA After Tense Year
“Coupled with this week’s failure, significant questions are raised about how long these issues have existed and what is needed to prevent such issues from occurring again,” said the letter signed by 122 lawmakers, including Representative Sam Graves, the Missouri Republican who is chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Representative Rick Larsen of Washington, the highest ranking Democrat on the panel.
Lawmakers in the House and Senate have pledged to probe the system failure and are already looking to include reforms to upgrade technology in major legislation being written this year to set US aviation policy.
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