NEWARK, NJ — A circuit went kaput at an air traffic control station in Philadelphia. A backup line was mysteriously found severed in New Jersey. And then came the delays.
This was the unpleasant situation for air travelers across the region on Monday after a series of equipment failures led to full ground stops being issued at airports in New Jersey, New York City and Philadelphia, among others.
The ensuing flight delays first hit Newark Airport, but soon spread to Teterboro Airport, JFK Airport and LaGuardia Airport, causing a ripple effect that stretched all the way to Boston.
The ground stops have been lifted, but residual backups are still being reported at Newark Airport on Tuesday. As of 2 p.m., there were 61 cancellations and 109 delayed flights at Newark, according to FlightAware.
The disruptions also took a toll on air traffic in New York City, where United Nations leaders have been flying into the country for a high-level general debate, and President Donald Trump recently met New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to discuss housing.
WHAT HAPPENED?
An FAA official said a primary circuit failed at a facility in Philadelphia that handles air traffic for the region, including Newark Airport. The station has experienced other equipment failures in the recent past, including radar outages that have temporarily left air traffic controllers scrambling in the dark.
The situation snowballed when it was discovered that a backup fiber line near a train track had been unknowingly cut at a construction site in New Jersey, reportedly somewhere between New Brunswick and Newark.
Verizon, which maintains the line, said its facilities were fully operational until the cable was cut and denied any responsibility for the incident.
The finger pointing escalated when U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy commented on the chaos, reporting that an Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut into a fiber line in New Jersey which caused a telecom outage and forced the FAA to pause flights in the Northeast.
Amtrak also denied responsibility, claiming that the incident took place on NJ Transit property and involved one of their contractors.
The buck then passed to NJ Transit, which confirmed the incident took place while one of its crews was working on the Delco Lead project. The agency added that it is investigating whether the utility markings at the site were accurate.
Duffy has since issued a clarification about what happened on Monday:
"Yesterday, a primary telecom switch failed. A backup line was accidentally cut by a NJ Transit construction crew. Flights in the Northeast ground to a halt. Repairs were made as quickly as possible, and all operations in Northeast resumed by the afternoon."
"Why did it happen?" Duffy opined. "Our digital infrastructure is still running on 40 to 50-year-old technology."
The push for technology upgrades has been a central part of the Trump administration's plan to ease chronic delays at airports across the nation. Other plans include training thousands of new air traffic controllers.
Duffy has repeatedly been questioned about the chronic delays and malfunctions impacting Newark Airport, which was widely considered one of the "worst in America" for delays last summer after being besieged by a combination of serious equipment failures, antiquated infrastructure, a chronic lack of air traffic controllers, major runway construction and bouts of bad weather.
Since then, federal officials say there have been improvements at the busiest airport in New Jersey, including the installation of a new surface movement radar system in August. Other recent improvements have included a software patch to fix glitches and prevent outages, rebalancing flight volume to match controller staffing, and replacing 90 percent of Newark Airport's copper wiring with high-speed fiber.
More upgrades are expected to cross the finish line before the end of the summer next year, including new electronic information displays, voice switches and long-range radar for air traffic controllers, the FAA said.
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