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Gov. Hochul calls on Duffy to resign after FAA meltdown grounds nation's flights
By
Ryan Kost
Published Nov 14, 2026 at 11:25 a.m. ET
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Timothy Clary via Getty Images
By
Ryan Kost
Published Nov 14, 2026 at 11:25 a.m. ET
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Gov. Kathy Hochul called on U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to resign or be fired after a communications failure grounded all flights across the country Friday, leading to thousands of flight cancellations and delays that continued well into Saturday.
“Sean Duffy must resign, or President Trump must remove him immediately,” the governor said in a statement Saturday morning.
“From chronic air traffic controller shortages to repeated communications breakdowns, serious lapses in our aviation system have become a pattern on Sean Duffy’s watch.”
The governor said the transportation secretary has been “more focused on starring in his own reality show,” a reference to a YouTube series Duffy filmed that followed his travels across the country with his wife, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, and their nine children. Duffy has said that department ethics officials approved the series and that no taxpayer money was spent.
Hochul and the MTA have been at odds with President Donald Trump’s transportation department for much of the past two years, largely over congestion pricing. Duffy has repeatedly moved to kill Manhattan’s toll program, but has been outflanked by the state in court.
The stoppage continued to stall travelers throughout the New York region Saturday, one of the world’s busiest for air travel.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill was still stranded in Denver, Colo. Saturday morning after her Friday night flight was grounded.
The Federal Aviation Administration halted flights nationwide Friday afternoon, citing a telecommunications outage. The stoppage was lifted later that evening, but still resulted in more than 7,500 flights being canceled and another 25,000 delayed, according to FlightAware.
At a Friday briefing, Duffy blamed aging equipment. He said the analog system’s switches and routers got overloaded with data. “It’s the old hardware that went down,” he said. Officials haven’t released a final determination of the cause.
Hochul called for a congressional investigation into the causes before the start of the holiday travel rush.
The Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The White House referred any questions to the transportation department.
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Politics
new york
transportation
Ryan Kost
Ryan Kost is a reporter on the day-of news desk, where he covers breaking news and writes enterprise stories about jails, courts, prosecutors and government accountability. His work focuses on the public institutions that shape life in New York. Before joining the newsroom, he lead a multi-part investigation with Columbia Journalism Investigations and New York Focus into how New York prosecutors handle wrongful conviction claims. He's also been a staff writer at The San Francisco Chronicle, The Associated Press and The Oregonian. Got a tip? Signal: ryankost.20
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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