A serious equipment breakdown at Newar Liberty International Airport in New Jersey has left air traffic controllers leaving passengers in three separate incidents over the past few weeks, causing hundreds of flight delays and cancellations.
Issues that lead to communications power outages include prolonged staffing shortages, aging technologies and infrastructure, and closures of Newark’s busiest runways.
The top government officials responded quickly.
At a cabinet meeting days after the initial shutdown, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy highlighted the urgency to build a “brand new system.”
If the country’s aging air traffic control infrastructure, including “technology that looks like a 1980s movie,” is not addressed, Duffy warned that “people will lose their lives.”
In an interview with NBC News on “Meet the Press” on May 11, Duffy said that a critical copper data line between the two communications hubs handling Newark’s airspace has been replaced by fiber optics, repairing glitches in air traffic control computer software.
Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has slowed traffic inside and outside the airport and deployed an emergency task force, Duffy announced on May 12.
“If the FAA does not take this investigation seriously, other airports across the country can see similar issues like Newark,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on May 5th.
what happened?
The first incident occurred on April 28th. This caused the main communication line between air traffic control and the plane to fail for 30 seconds, leaving workers in the control tower in the dark, unable to communicate with the pilot.
The backup system could not fire either, Duffy said.
According to the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers, a coalition of air traffic controllers, chaos was extremely stressful for control tower workers, so several people chose to take trauma leave.
“I don’t want to be responsible for killing 400 people,” said Stewart, one of the controllers who took trauma leave due to the stress of the incident.
And on May 5, the FAA announced that it would slow arrival rates to Newark as the government worked to repair its aging communications infrastructure.
This time the stop lasted for 90 seconds, which was essential to disable contact with the pilot and to see the air traffic flow through the radar screen in real time.
Due to controller staffing and air traffic reductions, two commercial pilots rented their cars and drove from Washington Dulles International Airport to Newark for a flight last week.
“I’m sure a lot of passengers are probably doing the same thing,” Seaberger told the Epoch Times. “Newark has become a very inconvenient for so many people.”
He said such incidents were once the busiest airport in the world, and were once the busiest airport, especially for travelers inside and outside the New York metropolitan area, and are still not a major hub.
“So any type of wrinkles in a day-to-day surgery usually develops and gets worse throughout the day,” Seeberger says.
What is the cause?
Issues that have led to recent issues in Newark include years of chronic staffing shortages, including controllers, obsolete and overloaded infrastructure, and computer software glitches.
In addition to that, add to the decision to move control of Newark airspace from facilities in New York to facilities in Philadelphia.
Staff shortage
Staffing issues have plagued the FAA for years. They are important parts of the puzzle that unravels Newark’s problems.
The shortage got worse when many veteran controllers chose to retire early in the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, when Congress passed the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, the FAA said it was a short thousand controller.
Outdated technology
Newark’s technology and equipment problems are multifaceted. They include software defects affecting air traffic controls and impaired infrastructures that are responsible for carrying data between hubs in New York and Philadelphia.
As a result of the outdated infrastructure, data was in between the two hubs, which overloaded some of the airport’s copper communications lines, causing the system to go down.
Duffy said there was also a problem with the software the government is working on fixing.
Three incidents caused hundreds of flight delays and cancellations, forcing the FAA to limit traffic inside and outside Newark until optimal safety for all travelers is ensured.
Air Control Transfer from New York to Philadelphia
Another factor in the airport’s disaster was the decision last year to reassign Newark airspace from the FAA to the New York communications hub to the Philadelphia communications hub.
Air traffic controllers working in Newark are currently located more than 100 miles south of Pennsylvania, but radar data is still being sent to a New York facility before sending aging copper data lines into Philadelphia.
Buttigieg responded by saying that Duffy was just playing “politics” and was working on launching a contract to replace copper wire systems with fiber optics as Transportation Secretary.
The decision to move Newark Air Force control was particularly dangerous, Duffy said, as the Philadelphia facility would need to supply radar data from New York via an already vulnerable old copper data line.
When and how will it be fixed?
The proposed solutions to the Newark problem vary.
It includes computer software patches, increased staffing, copper data lines replacement, fiber optics, plans to build new radar facilities in Philadelphia, and the FAA Emergency Task Force.
Duffy has quickly tracking contracts with telecommunications companies such as Verizon, quickly replacing old copper data lines.
He is also working to patch computer software in the hope that the problem will not occur elsewhere. The new line should be up and running in about two weeks, and hopes to prevent future blackouts, he said.
There are also plans to build a new facility in Philadelphia to handle Newark’s radar and data loads to stop the failure. Initially it was estimated that it would take six to eight months, but the secretary told reporters on May 7th, but hopes to build it by the end of summer.
There could be issues with copper data lines, but Seeberger said, in theory it shouldn’t matter whether the controllers displaying the data would do that on a computer in New York or more than 100 miles away in Philadelphia. The most important thing is staffing, he said.
“The FAA doesn’t have enough air traffic controllers to handle the large numbers of aircraft coming and going to Newark,” he said.
Duffy said Congress gave him the authority to extend the age of retirement for air traffic controllers from 56 to 61 in order to increase retention.
However, extending retirement age is not enough, he pointed out. Controllers can retire in 25 years, so many people have chosen to retire at the age of 50, and these veteran workers are one of those employed by the FAA, Duffy said.
So he suggests hiring a 20% advance bonus to the veteran controller and postpone his retirement.
The Transportation Department says it will do everything it can to encourage new employees and provide additional support to those currently at the FAA Academy. However, the process takes time.
Finally, the FAA is slowing traffic inside and outside the airport for at least the coming weeks to prevent passengers from facing additional delays, Duffy said.
Is it safe to jump out of Newark?
Many Americans wonder if it’s safe to jump out of Newark. He also wonders whether airport issues are affecting air travel across the country.
The government has repeatedly asserted travelers that the airport is still safe as it is working on a permanent solution to equipment failure.
As to whether the issue is being isolated in Newark, Duffy said the airport’s aging infrastructure is not unique, and airports across the country are tackling similar issues.
“Because what you see in Newark happens elsewhere around the country.
Regardless of the proposed amendments, Seaberger said slowing traffic coming and going to Newark would be inconvenient for countless passengers.
“They traveled during their holidays and met their loved ones for special events. Or they are going to go to a very important business meeting. The American citizens rely on commercial aviation, and this particular airport has caused so many problems along the East Coast.”
Wideer overhaul initiatives
While some of Newark’s challenges are endemic to its infrastructure, these issues are characteristic of the aging technology that plagues the country’s entire airport. This is an issue that both Duffy and Trump highlight in their plans to review and modernize the air traffic restrictions in the United States.
These plans include moving to the fiber optic data line, rebuilding several control towers and hubs, new radar sensors on the airport runway, and new radio implementations in the tower.
With proper funding from Congress, that can be achieved in three or four years, Duffy said.
“We use floppy disks in our system. We have a plug and an unplugged headphone jack. Think of the 1980s.
Rudy Blalock contributed to this report.
