White House fires back after Kathy Hochul demands Sean Duffy’s resignation over FAA shutdown
WASHINGTON, DC: New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Saturday, November 14, called for Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to resign or be removed by President Donald Trump following a communications failure that forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue a nationwide ground stop on Friday.
The disruption halted departures across the United States for approximately four hours, affecting thousands of flights and leaving passengers stranded. The White House, however, firmly rejected Hochul’s demand, accusing the Democratic governor of using the incident to score political points.
White House rejects Kathy Hochul’s demand for Sean Duffy’s resignation
Hochul called on Duffy to step down or be removed immediately, arguing that the disruption reflected broader problems with the country’s aviation system. “Sean Duffy must resign, or President Trump must remove him immediately,” she wrote in a statement posted on X.
Sean Duffy must resign, or President Trump must remove him immediately. America’s airspace ground to a halt yesterday, leaving thousands of flights canceled and travelers stranded across the country. More than 3,500 planes were already in the air as radar and communications systems faltered. We’re fortunate no lives were lost. From chronic air traffic controller shortages to repeated communications breakdowns, serious lapses in our aviation system have become a pattern on Sean Duffy’s watch. Through it all, he’s been more focused on starring in his own reality show than addressing the crisis at his agency. With millions of Americans preparing to travel for the holidays, families deserve answers and confidence in the safety of our skies. Congress must launch a full investigation to determine what went wrong and ensure it never happens again.
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) November 14, 2026
The democrat said that thousands of flights had been cancelled and travellers stranded after radar and communications systems experienced problems, adding that more than 3,500 aircraft were already in the air when the ground stop was issued. “We're fortunate no lives were lost,” Hochul said.
The governor also criticised what she described as chronic air traffic controller shortages and repeated communications breakdowns during Duffy’s tenure. She accused the secretary of focusing more on his television appearances than on addressing problems at the Transportation Department.
Hochul called for Congress to investigate the incident, saying that passengers needed assurances about aviation safety ahead of the busy holiday travel period.
In response, White House spokesperson Allison Schuster dismissed the governor’s demand. Schuster said that “Governor Hochul's calls for Secretary Duffy to resign is a desperate attempt to score political points over an issue that should not be partizan. This is a time for our country to come together, not to release clickbait statements.”
FAA investigates communications failure as flight disruptions continue
The FAA detected instability and inconsistent radar and communications data at air traffic facilities at approximately 3:36 pm EDT on Friday. A nationwide ground stop took effect around 3:54 pm, preventing departing aircraft from taking off while officials investigated. The restriction was lifted at approximately 8:15 pm.
Duffy said that the investigation was examining routine maintenance on the FAA’s telecommunications network, including work to transition services from ageing copper lines to fibre. The work involved infrastructure managed by L3Harris.
According to Duffy, a router involved in the transition began sending more than 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds to other network routers, causing inconsistent radar and communications feeds. Officials isolated the affected system, allowing the network to recover.
“We haven’t determined what the fault was,” Duffy said, adding that investigators were examining whether human error, improper configuration or defective equipment caused the problem.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford apologized to the thousands of Americans affected by Friday’s nationwide ground stop, emphasizing that the decision to pause all flights was “out of an abundance of caution.” “Everybody came together to try to mitigate this just as quickly as possible and to take care of the travelers that were out there,” he said. “So again, I’m sorry that we put you through this, but we did it for the right reasons.”
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 14, 2026
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said that air traffic control facilities had not completely lost their capabilities during the incident. “Nothing went down,” Bedford said. “What we saw was instability and we couldn’t explain the instability.”
Although the FAA returned to full operations, cancellations and delays continued into Saturday as airlines dealt with aircraft and crew members left out of position. FlightAware reported 3,803 cancellations and 2,145 delays involving US flights as of 11:33 am ET Saturday. Bedford forecasts that between 4,000 and 5,000 of approximately 41,000 scheduled flights could be cancelled on Saturday.
