House Republican Lauren Boebert called out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Twitter after a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system outage saw flights grounded across the United States for several hours.
The fault hit the FAA's Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, which is used to provide flight crews with real-time updates, including on potential hazards. More than 6,100 flights had been delayed as of 10:48 a.m. ET, according to data from FlightAware, with 1,000 flights canceled.
Responding to the fiasco on Twitter Boebert said: "Every plane in America is currently grounded due to a system error. Mayor Pete, bravo. This is what happens when you hire clueless liberals for jobs they aren't qualified to do."
Boebert wasn't the only conservative to criticize Buttigieg for the FAA fiasco, with the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana mocked relentlessly online. "Pete Buttigieg couldn't organize a one-car funeral. He was never remotely qualified for this role," Republican Senator Tom Cotton tweeted.
Shortly before 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Buttigieg said on Twitter that the NOTAM system had been restored, and as a result, the "ground stop" was lifted.
He wrote: "FAA has determined that the safety system affected by the overnight outage is fully restored, and the nationwide ground stop will be lifted effective immediately. I have directed an after-action process to determine root causes and recommend next steps."
Every plane in America is currently grounded due to a system error.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 11, 2023
Mayor Pete, bravo.
This is what happens when you hire clueless liberals for jobs they aren’t qualified to do.
Flights already in the air weren't directly impacted by the ban on flights taking off and were allowed to proceed with their journeys.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that President Joe Biden had ordered the Department of Transportation to conduct a "full investigation" into the incident.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said in a statement that the Biden administration would have to explain what had gone wrong to Congress.
"The FAA's inability to keep an important safety system up and running is completely unacceptable and just the latest example of dysfunction within the Department of Transportation," Cruz said. "The administration needs to explain to Congress what happened, and Congress should enact reforms in this year's FAA reauthorization legislation.
"This incident also highlights why the public needs a competent, proven leader with substantive aviation experience leading the FAA."
The FAA hasn't had a permeant leader since March 2022. President Biden nominated Phillip Washington for the post, but he has yet to have a confirmation hearing.
Buttigieg just faced pressure from critics over last month's Southwest Airlines scandal that resulted in thousands of canceled flights and travelers left stranded in airports across the U.S. over Christmas weekend. Buttigieg, who called the issue a "system failure," was blamed by some for failing to act on previous warnings about potential travel chaos.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Transportation for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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James Bickerton is a Newsweek U.S. News reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is covering U.S. politics and world ... Read more
