Transportation secretary says he doesn’t apologize for FAA’s nationwide ground stop

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Sunday declined to apologize for the nationwide ground stop on Friday that stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers across the country following a router issue that derailed air traffic control communications.

Instead, the secretary blamed his predecessors and previous presidential administrations that he said did not do enough to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system.

“It happened on my watch, but we have to be clear: I am moving at an incredible speed that no one has done at the FAA or in decades, and I’m proud of the work we’re doing, the attention we’re bringing to this issue,” 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 secretary also blamed “30 years of a lack of investment,” from the country’s previous leaders.

He added, “Why they didn’t do that I don’t know, but they gave me a system that needs to be fixed, and President [Donald] Trump and I are going to fix it.”

His remarks come less than two days after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a national ground stop…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business