Markwayne Mullin Says Airport Ground Stop Was Not Yet Linked to a Threat

Markwayne Mullin said investigators had found no indication that the nationwide airport ground stop was caused by a deliberate attack, while cautioning that officials had not finished examining what happened. The U.S. homeland security chief spoke to reporters at the White House after meeting President Donald Trump, according to the report. Mullin described the disruption as a telecommunications outage based on what officials knew at the time. He stressed that authorities were still looking into the cause and were not ruling out a cyberattack. His comments left open the possibility that the initial explanation could change as the investigation develops. The secretary also pushed back against fears that the incident resembled the September 11 attacks. “This isn’t another 9/11,” he said, emphasizing that there was no indication of a hostile act against the United States at that point. Mullin said he saw no reason to connect the airport disruption to a major global Microsoft outage that had affected public services. He characterized the two problems as separate issues, while investigators continued their work. He added that officials had accounted for every flight and that incoming international flights would be handled individually. Mullin warned that restoring normal operations might take time, rather than being resolved within an hour. The report did not identify the final cause of the outage or give a timeline for when the investigation would conclude.