WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Sunday refused to apologize for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)'s nationwide ground stop that lasted for hours on Friday, which disrupted over 10,000 flights, with the impact continuing throughout the weekend.
"It happened on my watch," Duffy told NBC News' "Meet the Press." "But I can't apologize for what was passed off to us, and I can't blame Republicans or Democrats because it's all of them."
The transportation secretary blamed his predecessors and previous administrations for failing to do enough to modernize the U.S. air traffic control system, describing it as "30 years of a lack of investment."
Duffy's remarks came two days after the FAA issued a national ground stop that lasted more than four hours, triggering widespread flight cancellations and delays that continued through the weekend. More than 14,000 flights were canceled on Friday and Saturday, according to data from flight-tracking website FlightAware.
U.S. media described the incident as the longest nationwide ground stop since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
At a press conference on Saturday, Duffy attributed the disruption to "routine maintenance" at a "remote FAA location," where a contractor identified as L3Harris was replacing aging copper wiring with fiber-optic lines.
Duffy has repeatedly urged the U.S. Congress to approve billions of dollars in funding to overhaul the nation's aging air traffic control infrastructure.
At the same press conference, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford offered a "sincere apology to the American traveling public" affected by Friday's nationwide ground stop, emphasizing that the decision to pause all flights was made "out of an abundance of caution."
Bedford said that U.S. air travel was not expected to return to normal schedules until late Sunday. ■