In a recent appearance on Fox News’ The Sunday Briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin addressed the widespread speculation linking Friday’s FAA ground stop to the earlier Microsoft outage.
“There’s conspiracy theories running all over the place…my job is to make sure that’s not taking place. If it did take place, we’d be honest with the American people,” Mullin stated when questioned by host Peter Doocy regarding public concerns about a larger issue causing the ground stop.
He emphasized that the two events were completely unrelated. “Truth is — we deal with bad things every day at DHS. Most of it doesn’t make the headlines because we’re able to get ahead of it,” he added.
Mullin pointed to outdated technology as a significant factor behind the aviation disruption, calling for a comprehensive overhaul rather than piecemeal fixes.
POLL: Will America Regret Giving The Democrats Power?
NOW: DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin SHUTS DOWN "conspiracy theories" that something "big" is happening linking the Microsoft outage to FAA
DOOCY: The FAA failure and Microsoft outage? You get why so many people think something BIG is happening here?
MULLIN: "There's conspiracy… pic.twitter.com/LgqOlBtKyA
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 15, 2026
During the briefing following the incident, Mullin reiterated that there was no link to Microsoft. “So far, there is actually no cyberattack. We’re still evaluating the situation. Our teams are engaged,” he mentioned.
He also acknowledged that the ground stop represented the largest such action since September 11 but maintained the two scenarios are not comparable. “This isn’t another 9/11. I just can’t repeat that enough,” said Mullin.
Mullin assured that there was no current threat to the United States, attributing the disruption to a failure in FAA telecommunications. “There is no indication and we had no reason to believe this was a threat,” he stated.
Regarding potential cyber involvement, Mullin indicated that officials had encountered “zero evidence” of an attack. He explained that typical indicators of cyber threats were absent: “We haven’t seen any footprints.” He mentioned that the issues seemed to stem from mechanical failures while clarifying, “We’re not ruling out anything at this point.”
The FAA implemented the ground stop shortly before 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday due to telecommunications instability impacting numerous Air Route Traffic Control Centers. The precautionary action lasted several hours, with airspace reopening around 8:15 p.m. ET.
According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the legacy TDM equipment became overwhelmed by data uploads at a rate of 1,000 connection attempts every 4 to 5 seconds, causing significant disruption to aircraft communications and radar feeds across multiple centers.
Initial investigations pointed to a radar site in Amarillo, Texas, and a radio communications site in El Dorado, Arkansas, with L3Harris, the service provider, conducting routine upgrades at the latter location.
In a formal statement, the FAA confirmed, “Based on all available evidence, we have no indication that this was a cyberattack or an outside nefarious actor.”
