At a press conference today, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that Friday’s nationwide ground stop ordered by the FAA was related to work replacing outdated copper wire with a fiber optic line at a “remote FAA facility.” The secretary said that this was “routine maintenance,” rather than the result of a major modernization effort. He told reporters that it was “such an old wire that it was being discontinued, meaning that line was going to get shut down,” necessitating the upgrade.