The disruption coincided with the publication of a government accountability office (GAO) report, which found that the FAA has yet to finish risk assessments or update security documentation covering threats from spoofing, jamming and other attacks on the radio spectrum – prompting a prominent senator to warn of a “major threat” to national security.

The FAA also lacks a real-time system to detect all such threats, the report said, meaning it can generally only investigate incidents after they are reported.