The U.S. Air Force responded to “suspected unauthorized drone activity” over RAF Lakenheath, America’s master fighter base in England, the Air Force has confirmed to TWZ. The confirmation was in response to our questions about social media reports of drone activity over several U.S. bases in England. On Nov. 9, we were the first to report that security levels had been raised at U.S. bases in England.
“This evening, USAF Security Forces personnel responded to suspected unauthorized drone activity over RAF Lakenheath,” an Air Force official told us. “No personnel, aircraft or infrastructure were affected.”
“We continue to work closely with our host nation counterparts to ensure the safety and security of our U.S. service members, U.S. and host nation civilians, contractors, and all of our families,” the official added. “Protecting our shared community is a joint responsibility, and we encourage everyone to support this effort by reporting any unusual or suspicious activity to local authorities.”
Earlier, the @defencegeek open-source intelligence X account stated that there were alarms going off at RAF Lakenheath, as well as RAF Mildenhall and RAF Feltwell. He posted video purporting to show the sound of sirens near RAF Mildenhall.
Air Force officials declined to say who may have been operating the drones or whether security levels had been raised. We previously noted that security at RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath was raised to Force Protection Condition (FPCON) Charlie due to an unspecified threat from Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources. FPCON Charlie, the second-highest security level for U.S. military installations, applies when an incident occurs or intelligence is received indicating some form of terrorist action targeting personnel or facilities is likely. FPCON Delta is the highest security level and applies in the immediate area where a terrorist attack has occurred or when intelligence has been received that terrorist action against a specific location or person is imminent.
Before the Air Force issued its response, a member of the British Parliament stated there was no threat to the public.
“Following the speculation about the alarm at RAF Lakenheath, I have been in touch with the authorities at the base,” Nick Timothy announced on Facebook. “I am told there is no threat to the public, and the incident is now resolved.”
“Given the raised threat level, I continue to encourage everyone to report anything suspicious or out of the ordinary to the authorities,” he added. “And I also encourage the Ministry of Defense and US Air Force to communicate as freely as operational security constraints allow them.”
UPDATE: 5:05 PM EST –
The British Defense Ministry responded to our query.
“We are coordinating with all relevant parties regarding reports of unauthorised drone activity at RAF Lakenheath this evening,” an official told us. “USAF Security Forces personnel responded to the reports and the situation is now resolved. We are working closely with them to establish the facts. We will provide updates in due course.”
The FAA has made the very rare move of halting all flights across the country. The agency announced that communications issues are to blame.
“The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following communication issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers,” the agency said in a statement. “FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide updates.”
The @FAAnews issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.
In January 2023, the FAA halted flights because of issues with a pilot alert system. Before that, traffic was halted nationwide after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
It is unclear if the issue was due to an internal glitch or from an external action.
This is a developing story. We will update it as we find out more.
UPDATE: 4:53pm EST —
CNN is reporting that initial indications point to this not being a cyber attack, based on officials that talked to the network. We have to stress this is based on preliminary information from their sources and it could change. CNN writes:
“Preliminary reports indicate this is not a cyberattack, according to two law enforcement officials.FBI personnel across the country are continuing to monitor the situation, according to another law enforcement source.”
There are changes occurring across the FAA’s air traffic control system in attempts to overhaul and modernize it. This includes the use of AI to help improve the efficiency of flights criss-crossing the skies. A report from Arstechnica just yesterday highlighted the wider deployment of AI to air traffic control centers after a successful test period in Washington, D.C. The story states:
“After a successful initial rollout to the National Capital Region in September, the FAA will now use SMART in the airspace of all 22 centers across the country to reduce delays, reduce fuel consumption and improve the travel experience for the flying public,” according to the agency statement posted on November 10.
UPDATE: 5:11PM EST—
The issue appears to be primarily impacting ARTCCs (Air Route Traffic Control Centers). These regional centers coordinate all the movements of flights across the country. This fits with what we are seeing.
The issue seems to be stemming from the ARTCCs. These are, in lamens terms, facilities that manage aircraft traveling between airports and primarily guide pilots along their routes to maintain safe separation between planes.
FAA orders nationwide grounding of passenger planes…
In a presser, Secretary Markwayne Mullin basically says everything is on the table and nothing is ruled out.
From the presser:
Mullin: Just to make sure we understand, there is no indication, and we had no reason to believe as of right now that this was a threat to the United States. This was a telecommunication outage throughout the FAA. Now, out of abundance of caution, we have grounded all the flights, and 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…
…
My understanding is that we can still communicate. It’s just that it’s at different levels in the clarity that we can get to. But there’s redundancy in most communications. So, as you can see, there’s still planes landing, and so there’s still communications going on.
…
It’s going to take some time, and so this isn’t going to just be resolved and turned around within the hour. This is going to take some time. But once again, everybody is safe. The flights are accounted for, and … there should be no fear to the public at all.
..
There’s two areas that we are that we know that are not affected. I don’t think I’m at the ability to share those right now, but there’s two areas inside the United States that are still able to communicate just fine.
…
This isn’t the same comparison to 9/11. That is, that’s a road I won’t go down. But people are making that assumption because it’s a stoppage. Do we know what has caused it yet? No, we’re going to go through it, but I’m not going to make assumptions. As I’ve said multiple times, it’s very difficult to make assumptions. We want to always deal with facts, and we’re going to deal with facts.
UPDATE: 5:48PM EST—
ASI says this issue has nothing to do with their AI deployment at FAA centers:
The current ground stop is not based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA and ATC.
Some detail as to what Chicago Center experienced:
The cascading shutdown occurred over one hour:
🇺🇸 Last recorded take-offs at selected US airports:
DEN: 13:38 MT ORD: 14:15 CT IAH: 14:39 CT JFK: 15:35 ET EWR: 15:35 ET DCA: 15:35 ET ATL: 15:37 ET MIA: 15:36 ET All times are local. pic.twitter.com/on7uZakTOa
Much still remains to be learned about the circumstances behind the ongoing ground stop. However, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy had been warning about the fragility of the aging telecommunications infrastructure underpinning FAA’s air traffic control system.
“The architecture of our telecom is still a 40-year-old architecture, which means you could have a switch go down and a line be cut yesterday and the Northeast goes down,” Duffy said in September, per a report from Reuters. “These incidents will continue to happen unless we get the resources and actually build the architecture fit for the 21st century.”
Reuters said those comments follow delays and cancellations impacting thousands of flights across the Northeastern United States “due to the dual failures of a circuit at a Philadelphia air traffic facility and the accidental cut of a fiber-optic cable near New Brunswick, New Jersey, by a construction crew.”
UPDATE: 6:40PM EST—
The Wall Street Journal has now reported that “the outage appears to be affecting a telecommunications network overseen by L3Harris Technologies, according to people briefed on the matter.”
“The network handles crucial radio frequencies that air-traffic controllers use to communicate with pilots, the people said,” the Journal’s story added. “It wasn’t immediately clear whether the outage also affected the radar feeds that controllers use to keep aircraft safely separated in the skies.”
“Multiple sources tell @CBSNews that an update to the private communications network that connects America’s air traffic control system caused the system to reboot,” according to a post from that outlet’s Olivia Rinaldi on X. “When the FAA’s telecommunication infrastructure rebooted, it crashed, causing the communications outage. The system is operated by L3Harris.”
NEW: Multiple sources tell @CBSNews that an update to the private communications network that connects America’s air traffic control system caused the system to reboot.
When the FAA’s telecommunication infrastructure rebooted, it crashed, causing the communications outage.…
“The Federal Aviation Administration told airlines the nationwide outages that prompted the ground stop were the result of a problem with network routers, according to an airline source,” according to a separate update from CNN. “The problem is believed to have started at Chicago Midway International Airport and cascaded nationwide.”
“In case you heard otherwise, there is no radar outage and radar.weather.gov is fully operational!” the National Weather Service (NWS) also said in a post on X, but it is unclear if this is related in any way to the issues FAA is experiencing. “Outdated content from isolated webpages stating otherwise has been circulating, but NWS radars are operating normally.”
In case you heard otherwise, there is no radar outage and https://t.co/sKhgAVX4eI is fully operational! Outdated content from isolated webpages stating otherwise has been circulating, but NWS radars are operating normally.
“You may not be able to access products on our webpages, or these products will be old,” that statement had added. “Technicians are actively working to resolve these issues as soon as possible. Local offices continue to issue watches, warnings and forecasts and they are available on some external websites.”
Again, it is not clear if this is related in any way to the issues FAA is experiencing.
UPDATE: 7:32PM EST—
Online flight tracking data shows limited continued departures from various airports despite the ground stop, particularly long-haul flights from the East and West Coasts.
Some international long-haul flights are still managing to operate tonight despite the nationwide ground stop.
Departures are continuing on a limited basis from Northeast and West Coast airports to Europe and Asia. pic.twitter.com/u0rBy8CEMb
FlightAware: Total delays today: 26,097 Total delays within, into, or out of the United States today: 10,243 Total cancellations today: 3,947 Total cancellations within, into, or out of the United States today: 3,288https://t.co/VcdmU0FSIz
CNN has now reported, citing an unnamed airline source, that some carriers might shut down operations, at least overnight, given that it is unclear when the situation may be resolved.
Though the cause of the outages remains unconfirmed, reporting so far continues to point away from any potential attack being responsible. As noted earlier, concerns have been raised in the past about the state of the underlying infrastructure behind the FAA’s air traffic control systems, which is notoriously patched together with a mix of old and new technology.
Don’t underestimate the dodginess of the hodgepodge of rickety/old/mismatched/stitched together systems that make up the air traffic control system when it comes to stuff like this.
Duffy and Mullin held a press conference at the White House to offer the latest explanation about what led to the full ground stop and why it was lifted. The following are highlights.
Duffy on the stop being lifted
“So at 8:15 tonight Eastern time, we opened up the airspace. Now, does that mean every plane is going to fly right now? It’s going to be slow, right? So if you’re watching at an airport, check with your airline.We’re trying to do as many of those as we can tonight, if we have the capacity with crews to move those flights. If not, we’ll start tomorrow morning with our airline partners moving those aircraft. It’s going to take us some time to unwind what’s happened this afternoon.”
Duffy on the funding needed to fix the problem
“This is an emergency. This is an emergency. I want Congress to give us emergency funding. This is bipartisan. This is American. I want $50 billion.”
“Many of our towers are almost 100 years old. Our air traffic controllers have leaky roofs, air conditioning that doesn’t work. They’re high in the air. Their elevators don’t work. Their roofs leak. I want new towers. We should also invest in many of the airports around the country…Let’s get the money. Let’s invest so we never have to come at 8:30 at night and have a press conference on why air travel was shut down, why we have tens of thousands of people in airports separated from their families without any knowledge of where they’re going to sleep tonight.”
Duffy on what went wrong
“So, at 3:36 p.m., we experienced instability for our radar and our communications and our centers and our TRACONs [Terminal Radar Approach Controls] across the country. If you don’t know this, at airports we have towers. The next rung out is a TRACON. After that, we have in-loop centers. The TRACONs and the centers, we started to have inconsistency in the data from the radars and our communication with airplanes. And we have procedures for this. Our pilots are well trained. Our air traffic controllers are well trained, and at that point we issued a ground stop. We had over 3,500 airplanes in the air. They all engaged, and last time [I checked] we had less than 400 in the airspace as they were all coming into safely land. And we navigated it with our well-known procedures that we have when these incidents happen.”
“We’ve got our centers and our TRACONs operational. I don’t want to rule out that we… have nefarious activity here. We were able to deploy fixes to reduce the overloading on our switches. That we’re able to bring the networks back online and our TRACONS and our centers back online, I think our fix gives us a pretty good indication that it was a legacy network problem that went down.”
Mullin on what caused the issues
“So let’s talk about cybersecurity once again. We’re still looking at it. We’re not ruling out anything. What it appears to be right now is as Secretary Duffy and FAA [were] going in and putting patches into the system, they were putting new equipment and new technology, and that new equipment, new technology…was overwhelming the older system, which is why Secretary Duffy made it very clear: the patchwork doesn’t work. We need one complete system. We need someone to come in and build the whole system. Doing it nickeling and diming together does not work. This is what happens when it takes place. That’s why the president has made it very clear we can’t do this. It has to be a complete overhaul of the system, which we estimate to be about $50 billion. However, out of an abundance of caution, we are still going to do everything we can to rule it out. If that changes, we will let you know. But it doesn’t appear right now that this was anything to do but with technology.”
Duffy on SMART system not being the culprit
“So as I mentioned, this is all the old legacy equipment. All of the new equipment that’s been deployed did not go down. Our SMART system, which is a system that we have a feed for the whole airspace, that’s going to help us better manage trajectories of airplanes and better manage weather… But that SMART system isn’t plugged into STARS [Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System] and ERAM [En Route Automation Modernization]. It’s not. This is completely disconnected. And I love that some people have said this would be the root cause…But this is not even plugged in. What this does is gives information from the airspace to a human being and gives them a prompt on how they can better navigate weather or trajectories. Then the human being will actually decide to accept or deny that prompt. So we’re not even tied in. So there was no possible way SMART would have impacted” the system.
Mullin on why he doesn’t believe this was an attack
“There’s nothing completely certain right now. It doesn’t appear that way. We’ve activated our teams. This is what Department of Homeland Security is all about. This is why we’re stood up to have a continuity of government to bring all the resources together in an emergency like this. This is exactly what this is. This is a national emergency. We have all of our assets, be it from DOW to CISA to all of our NOCs [Network Operations Centers], then all the other components we have inside of DHS. NSA is working with us. There is nothing that indicates it yet. Now, when we start looking at cyber threats, cyber attacks typically, some people are going to raise their hand up and say, ‘Hey, we did that.’ There’s no chatter. We haven’t seen any footprints, as you would say, or identifications of people that got into the system. It appears that this was mechanically driven. However, we’re still looking, so we’re not going to rule that out.”
Duffy on Thanksgiving Travel
“So I believe that it’s going to take us some time to get back to capacity, and then get people who were disrupted over the course of the last eight hours to get them back to their destination, so we’re going to have some makeup to do. A lot of my kids are flying next Friday back from college. I imagine that’s when a lot of kids are flying, and everyone starts their Thanksgiving travel, which, by the way, is a very busy time for travelers. I think we’re going to be back up and operational as we come into the heat of travel during Thanksgiving.”
The FAA also issued a statement:
“The safety of the flying public is always the FAA’s highest priority. The FAA lifted the ground stop and some flight departures are resuming. Before clearing flights to resume, we thoroughly tested our systems to confirm they were stable and that operations remain reliable.
Passengers should contact their airlines for flight updates.”
