The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported a 90-second telecommunications outage at Newark Liberty International Airport on Friday, impacting communications and radar displays. This occurred around 3:55 a.m. local time, affecting the Philadelphia TRACON Area C, which controls airspace around the airport.
FlightAware reported significant delays; over an hour for departures, 45 minutes to an hour for arrivals, and inbound flights delayed by up to 4 hours and 22 minutes. Approximately 300 flights were delayed (28 percent), and 131 were canceled (12 percent).
This is the second such incident in a week. A previous outage resulted in a 30-second loss of contact, prompting Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to acknowledge a "frail system" needing repair. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby offered differing accounts regarding controller absences.
The FAA stated that it is taking steps to resolve the ongoing problems, including technological upgrades and staffing increases. The issues are compounded by ongoing runway construction and a nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers.
Radar screens at the major U.S. airport went dark earlier on Friday, the agency says.
Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey lost communication for about 90 seconds on Friday, said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), coming in the midst of concerns about air traffic control at the major U.S. hub.
“There was a telecommunications outage that impacted communications and radar display at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, which guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport airspace,” the FAA said on Friday. TRACON Area C refers to a specific section within the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control, a type of air traffic control facility.
The 90-second outage took place earlier in the day at around 3:55 a.m. local time, the federal agency said.
“The primary communication line went down, the backup line didn’t fire, and so for 30 seconds we lost contact with air traffic,” Duffy said during an interview on Fox News on Monday. “Now, were planes going to crash? No. They have communication devices ... but it’s a sign that we have a frail system in place, and it has to be fixed.”
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said on Monday that air traffic controllers in Philadelphia responsible for coordinating planes in Newark, which serves the New York City area, temporarily lost radar contact and communications with the aircraft under their control on April 28.
And Scott Kirby, chief executive of United Airlines, the carrier that operates the most flights from Newark, last week said 20 percent of the FAA controllers for Newark had walked off the job. However, the controllers’ union said the workers did not walk off the job but took absences under the Federal Employees Compensation Act, which provides for absences for injuries or on-the-job trauma.
Kirby said later on Monday that United was canceling 35 more flights per day at its Newark hub “to reduce the traffic, get all the airlines to participate, and then we can move forward and rebuild back to capacity.”
Newark airport has also been undergoing runway construction this spring, which has cut capacity, and the FAA has faced a persistent nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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