New York (AFP) – Regulators said Wednesday they have been slowing arrivals and departures at one of the United States’ busiest airports following a 90-second traffic control system outage last week that has industry experts sounding alarm bells. Delays and flight cancellations have followed the April 28 incident at Newark Liberty International Airport in the state of New Jersey, one of the three major airports serving the New York metropolitan area.
For about a minute and a half, air traffic controllers stationed in nearby Philadelphia were unable to communicate with Newark planes as the radios and radar went out, according to accounts in US media. Employees involved in the incident have described a terrifying scene, with four air traffic workers taking short-term, trauma-related leave following the outage, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The episode has heaped additional attention on the US Air Traffic Control system, which has been chronically understaffed and long been beset with older equipment due to shortfalls in congressional funding. In a statement Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was slowing arrivals and departures while taking “immediate steps” to improve reliability at Newark. This includes “accelerating technological and logistical improvements and increasing air traffic controller staffing” at Philadelphia, where Newark’s airspace is managed.
The agency said it was adding new telecommunications capacity, replacing copper connections with updated materials and deploying backup equipment. It also cited runway construction as a cause for the slowdown. “All the flights in and out of Newark are absolutely safe,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement, adding that pilots are trained to “re-establish communication if controllers lose radio contact to navigate the airplane safely to its destination.”
But Kirby said the FAA has permitted too many flights for the available capacity. “Only the FAA can actually fix Newark” by limiting the number of flights, modernizing the system, and fully staffing the Air Traffic operation, Kirby said.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is set to announce upgrades to the country’s air traffic control system at a Thursday news conference. The effort is part of what President Donald Trump’s administration says will be a “golden age of transportation,” according to a Department of Transportation advisory. The troubles at Newark follow a January 29 mid-air collision near Washington’s Reagan National Airport involving a passenger jet and a military helicopter, the first major US commercial crash since 2009.
The FAA has experienced staff cuts due to the government reorganization led by Tesla boss Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The job cuts do not affect safety employees, and no air traffic control staff have been reduced due to Musk’s initiatives, according to the FAA.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer has called for a full investigation into the problems. “Why have the staffing shortages at Newark and other critical airports been allowed to continue?” Schumer asked in a statement. “What role have DOGE cuts played in aggravating the chaos?”
© 2024 AFP
