DHS Secretary Mullin Says 'No Indication' There Was a 'Nefarious Attack' After FAA Grounds All Flights

DHS Secretary Mullin Says ‘No Indication’ There Was a ‘Nefarious Attack’ After FAA Grounds All Flights Alex Wong/Getty Images Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there is “no indication” that there was a “nefarious attack” after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all flights in the U.S. “This was a telecommunications outage throughout FAA,” Mullin said while speaking with reporters. “Out of abundant of caution we have grounded all the flights, and all the flights are accounted for. As incoming flights, either internationally or the flights that are currently still in the air, we’ll be dealing with those case-by-case. As you can imagine, there will be a priority list as they start coming in. As I will repeat myself, there was no prior indication, there was no indication as of yet, that this was a nefarious attack against us, it’s just a telecommunication outage as of right now.” Mullin’s comments come after the FAA issued a statement that “ALL AIRCRAFT OPERATORS, BY ORDER OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION COMMAND CENTER ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED”: DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND FOR REASONS OF SAFETY. ATTENTION ALL AIRCRAFT OPERATORS, BY ORDER OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION COMMAND CENTER ALL AIRPORTS ARE GROUND STOPPED. ALL DEPARTING TRAFFIC SHOULD REMAIN GROUND STOPPED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. INBOUND INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS WILL BE MANAGED ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also announced in a post on X that the FAA “issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.” While speaking with reporters, Mullin also stated that “through DHS” people were calling asking if this was a terrorist attack. Mullin confirmed that “everybody’s safe,” the Hill reported. “Of course, through DHS, we’re getting a ton of calls saying, ‘Is this a terrorist attack? Is this a terrorist attack?’ Everybody’s safe,” Mullin said. “There’s is no reason to be concerned about your loved ones if they’re flying or anything like that. I just want to make sure everybody’s at ease about that.” “As we investigate what caused this, you always got to assume that as many cyberattacks that take place, that you make that assumption,” Mullin said. “As of right now, that’s not known. We’re going to continue to work, the first thing we want to do is make sure we restore the communications, we get all the flights on the ground, and then we get back to normal operations.”