MILWAUKEE — Many travelers at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport had to navigate flight cancellations and delays Saturday, after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered an hours-long nationwide ground stop Friday.
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The FAA ordered the ground stop after issues communicating with aircraft and radar disruptions, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy during a press conference Saturday morning.
"This morning, the system remains stable, and our airline partners are working through the operational recovery," said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford during that press conference.
According to Duffy, the communication and radar problems stemmed from "routine maintenance" when contractor L3Harris was switching telecommunication lines from old copper wire to fiber.
"What we're working to determine was whether we had incompetence, meaning was it user error, installer error from L3Harris, or did they install a faulty router?" said Duffy.
The agency ended the order after more than four hours, and a day later, travelers are still feeling the impacts, at airports around the country and in Milwaukee.
"We do anticipate somewhere between four and five thousand of the 41,000 flights that are scheduled today likely will cancel," said Bedford.
Some flights are departing Milwaukee on time, but several are delayed or canceled.
Donna Schregardus and her husband were prepared to leave for a long-awaited trip.
"We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon 38 years ago, so we have been waiting to be going back for a while, so it is disappointing," said Schregardus.
Their Saturday morning flight was initially delayed, then canceled.
"We got to the airport, got checked in, got through TSA, and then found out our flight was canceled," Schregardus said.
Consuelo Arboleda said her flight was canceled twice. She and her husband were planning to go to Fort Myers to visit her son.
"We did have a flight at 3:15 p.m. yesterday, but it was canceled and changed to this morning at 7:30 a.m., and the same, canceled," Arboleda said.
She said trying to get answers and rework her travel plans has been frustrating.
"Frustration because I've tried to call since four in the morning, many times," Arboleda said.
Kim Raiford was trying to make her way back home to Lansing, Michigan after visiting friends in Milwaukee. Her flight was rescheduled multiple times.
"It's my first time here to Milwaukee, to Wisconsin. I'll chalk it up as an experience, but as long as I get home safely I'll be happy," Raiford said.
For some, the disruptions might also bring extra expenses.
"We haven't been able to get ahold of our hotel yet, so we'll find out more later. We're paying for an extra night for the animals to be boarded," Schregardus said.
Many travelers are simply hoping to reach their destinations.
"Fingers crossed that I will be leaving out of Milwaukee," said Raiford.
"So we are hopefully getting on a flight tomorrow morning instead," Schregardus said.
According to Bedford, airlines are expected to be back on schedule by Sunday night.
"Based on everything that we are hearing from our airline partners, they believe that they will be able to have full schedule integrity by the close of business on Sunday," said Bedford.
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