For nearly 90 seconds on April 28, air traffic controllers guiding planes to and from Newark Liberty International Airport faced what one controller described as “the most dangerous situation you could have.” Their radar screens went dark. Radio communications failed. And approximately 20 aircraft were left flying without guidance.
“We have no answer on approach,” the pilot of United Flight 1560 from Costa Rica radioed to controllers in the Newark tower, according to recordings obtained from LiveATC.net. “It seems like he’s like not talking to anyone.”
The system breakdown at the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control facility, which manages Newark’s airspace, has triggered more than a week of cascading delays and cancellations, with some passengers experiencing delays of up to 14 hours. United Airlines, which operates a major hub at Newark, has canceled 35 daily flights in response.
The telecommunications failure has exposed the precarious state of America’s air traffic control infrastructure. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged that the system uses outdated technology. “We use floppy disks. We use copper wires,” Duffy told reporters. “The system that we’re using is not effective to control the traffic that we have in the airspace today.”
The controllers who experienced the outage have taken 45 days of trauma leave under the Federal Employees Compensation Act, further straining a facility that United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby described as “chronically understaffed for years.”
“It was just by the grace of God that there wasn’t another plane in his way,” a controller told CNN, referring to a FedEx plane that had to divert to LaGuardia’s airspace during the blackout.
The Federal Aviation Administration has promised to increase staffing and replace the telecommunications equipment involved in the failure. But officials warned it could take years to fully resolve the underlying issues, prolonging the uncertainty for the tens of thousands of passengers who pass through Newark daily.
The crisis comes during an already turbulent year for U.S. aviation following January’s deadly mid-air collision between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that killed 67 people.
Flight cancellations have increased dramatically at Newark since the incident. Data from aviation analytics company Cirium shows that prior to April 26, Newark averaged just four flight cancellations per day. That number has since jumped to 39 cancellations daily.
The FAA announced Wednesday it would implement immediate measures, including utilizing controller trainees certified for specific positions. Meanwhile, United Airlines has issued flexibility waivers for passengers traveling through Newark, allowing them to reschedule without additional charges or to use nearby airports.