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Newark Liberty Airport experienced its fourth air traffic communication outage in three weeks on Tuesday, amid concerns of aging systems and ongoing air traffic controller staffing shortages.
The FAA said a brief two-second radio frequency outage occurred at 11:35 a.m. on Tuesday, affecting the Philadelphia TRACON facility that manages Newark's air traffic.
All planes remained safely separated, operations are normal, and an investigation is underway, the FAA said.
Newark Airport has experienced multiple radar and communication failures in recent weeks due to issues with signal lines from a New York FAA facility, including outdated copper wires.
These failures left air traffic controllers in Philadelphia unable to see or communicate with planes around Newark for up to 90 seconds on April 28 and May 9. A third incident occurred more recently, but backup systems worked that time.
What’s happening?
Newark Airport has experienced three other recent outages:
- April 28: A 90-second radar and radio outage led to over a thousand flight delays and cancellations nationwide, with five controllers taking trauma leave.
- May 9: Another 90-second outage disrupted communications and radar display.
- May 11: A 45-minute equipment failure resulted in a ground stop at the airport
What is actually going on?
The nation’s air safety system uses decades-old technology, including outdated copper wires, leading officials to take shocking measures to maintain it.
"We do try to buy replacement parts on eBay for this really old equipment," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy dryly told members of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee last week.
"Sometimes, we can't even buy it on eBay, so we're trying to use 3D printing to craft replacement parts for the system that we use,” he added.
However, staffing issues remain the biggest problem amid the incidents.
The April 28 outage was so stressful that five to seven air traffic controllers took trauma leave, worsening an existing staffing shortage.
Currently, only 22 fully certified controllers and five supervisors are assigned to the area, well below the FAA target of 38 certified controllers.
An additional 21 are in training, with 10 partially certified.
How can the FAA fix this?
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the air traffic control problems at Newark will likely last until summer.
The FAA has proposed temporarily limiting arrivals at Newark Airport to 28 per hour due to equipment outages and runway construction.
This cap will last through June 15, after which it will increase to 34 arrivals per hour until October 25, as part of a broader effort to reduce delays and cancellations.
The FAA is also replacing outdated copper wires with new fiber optic data lines between its Philadelphia and New York facilities to improve radar signal reliability.
Duffy said the plan to modernize the traffic control system and equip controllers with up-to-date technology will cost “tens of billions of dollars.”
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