Watch Biden Address Nationwide Flight Disruption: ‘They Don’t Know What the Cause of it Is’
President Joe Biden addressed the nationwide flight grounding Wednesday morning ordered by the FAA to members of the press assembled on the White House lawn.
Biden was joining his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, for a surgical procedure for a skin lesion above her eye and turned to the media to give a short statement about the ongoing flight delays. Biden said:
“I just spoke with Buttigieg. They don’t know what the cause is. But I was on the phone with him (unclear). I told them to report directly to me when they find out. Aircraft can still land safely, just not take off right now. They don’t know what the cause of it is, they expect in a couple of hours they’ll have a good sense of what caused it and will respond at that time.”
A nationwide computer glitch has led the FAA to ask that all flights be paused at least until 9 AM until it is resolved.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had previously stated that they did not believe that it was a cyberattack, though Biden’s comment that they don’t yet know the cause of the computer problem leaves all explanations as possible at this point.
The airline tracking website FlightAware has updated total delays as of 8:00 AM:
Total delays today: 9,856
Total delays within, into, or out of the United States today: 3,578
Total cancellations today: 1,676
Total cancellations within, into, or out of the United States today: 401
Watch above via White House pool
