FAA Grounds Flights, Florida Officials React

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has temporarily grounded all flights due to a system outage. This comes just over two weeks after Southwest Airlines had something similar happen, with millions of travelers stranded in airports. Naturally, the issue is trending on Twitter, and Florida representatives are speaking up.

The earliest to speak is Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL-17), who says "@SecretaryPete has overseen some of the biggest transportation meltdowns in recent history. The first FAA all grounding since 9/11 is happening now and all they can tell us is there’s an “outage.”"

Shortly after, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL-6) calls the situation "nuts" and questions where infrastructure funds are really going. "This is nuts. “Technical outage?” Are the FAAs systems that bad? Where is the administration sending all the infrastructure money?" he asks.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL-14) does not speak of the issue per se, but does retweet a notice by the Tampa International Airport reminding travelers to check their flight status.

At the same time, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) demands a full explanation of how and why the FAA's systems went down, saying it is "not okay" to suddenly ground all flights. "Safety is always the top priority, but leaving millions of travelers stranded and delayed to their destinations is not okay. I expect @FAANews and @SecretaryPete to immediately provide a FULL briefing to Congress on what happened and how they will ensure it NEVER happens again," he tweets.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL-23) is more mocking in his response, replying "Ctrl + Alt + Del," evidently saying the FAA computer technician can simply use the function.

Finally, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL-19) posts a clip from Varney & Co. describing the issue, saying that "this morning the @FAANews grounded all flights for the first time since 9/11 due to a reported computer system outage." He adds that "I am actively monitoring the situation."

Though it is reported flights resume after 9AM, the damage to public perception has already been done.

Grayson Bakich

Florida born and raised, Grayson Bakich is a recent recipient of a Master’s Degree in Political Science at the University of Central Florida. His thesis examined recent trends in political polarization and how this leads into justification of violence.