Air traffic controllers at Newark Liberty International Airport briefly lost communications with planes under their control, “unable to see, hear, or talk to them” last week, officials say.
The 28 April incident led to multiple employees going on trauma leave, contributing to hundreds of delayed flights. More than 150 flights were cancelled on Monday alone, according to tracking website FlightAware.
The airport, one of New York’s busiest hubs, has been grappling with staff shortages for more than a week.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Monday that contact with air traffic was lost for “30 seconds”, but it did not mean that the planes were going to crash.
“The primary communication line went down, the backup line didn’t fire, and so for 30 seconds we lost contact with air traffic,” Duffy told Fox News
“Now were planes going to crash? No. They have communication devices. … But it’s a sign that we have a frail system in place, and it has to be fixed.”
The Federal Aviation Administration also acknowledged in a statement that “our antiquated air traffic control system is affecting our work force”.
Confirming the controllers were on leave following the incident, the FAA said it could “not quickly replace them”.
“We continue to train controllers who will eventually be assigned to this busy airspace,” the statement said.
Air traffic control operations at the airport have come under sustained criticism recently.
Last week, United Airlines announced it was cancelling 35 flights per day from its Newark schedule because the airport “cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there”.
“In the past few days, on more than one occasion, technology that FAA air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed – resulting in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delayed and cancelled flights,” United CEO Scott Kirby said.
He also said the issues were “compounded” because over 20% of FAA controllers “walked off the job”.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said the employees took leave under provisions for workers who experience a traumatic event at work.
The union would not say how many controllers had taken leave, or how long they lost contact with planes.
The incident comes as the US Department of Transportation last week unveiled a package designed to boost the numbers of FAA air traffic controllers. The department said it was on track to hire at least 2,000 controllers this year.
In February, the Trump administration began firing hundreds of FAA employees, weeks after a fatal mid-air plane collision in Washington DC.
Transport secretary Duffy said he planned to unveil a plan on Thursday to seek billions of dollars from Congress to reform infrastructure and staffing.
“We’re going to build a brand new air traffic control system, from new telecom to new radars to new infrastructure,” he told Fox News.
