Newark Airport Suffers Another Tech Outage, FAA Says

The outage affected communications and radar for 90 seconds early Friday in latest upheaval at NewarkA technology outage took out radar and communications for Newark Liberty International Airport’s controllers briefly Friday morning, the second such breakdown in two weeks at a heavily trafficked U.S. transit hub.

The outage at the Philadelphia air-traffic control facility occurred Friday at 3:55 a.m. ET, the Federal Aviation Administration said, and lasted for around 90 seconds. A controller told a FedEx pilot before 4 a.m.: “Our scopes just went black again. If you care about this, contact your airline and try to get some pressure from them to fix this stuff,” according to audio of air-traffic control.

“The flight made it safely to its destination without issue,” FedEx said in a written statement. “We appreciate the professionalism and actions of our crew members and the controllers in safely addressing this challenging situation.”Controllers also lost contact with planes and their radar screens went dark because of a technology outage in late April. The second recent snafu illustrates the persistent challenges that have plagued the facility, which oversees arrivals at Newark. The FAA has said it is speeding up technology fixes for Newark’s air-traffic control operation.

About a third of flights flying into and out of Newark airport Friday were delayed as of 3 p.m., according to flight tracker FlightAware. More than 10% of flights both departing and arriving at the airport were canceled. Notices posted on the FAA’s website cited weather, constraints due to runway construction, and air-traffic control staffing. There were also delays at New York-area airports LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The 90-second radar outage at the facility in April roiled flights for thousands of passengers around the U.S. Some controllers sought short-term trauma related leave following the late April outage, exacerbating a staffing shortfall.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday outlined a plan to rebuild the U.S. air-traffic control system, which he said is in dire need of an overhaul. The work, which he said could be completed in three to four years, would require billions of dollars in funding from Congress.
Passengers waiting at an airport check-in.Some proposed changes that could boost air-traffic operations supporting Newark include replacing copper telecommunications links with fiber-optic technology and eventually setting up a hub for processing radar data at the Philadelphia facility.

United Airlines, the biggest airline at Newark, last week said it would cut 35 daily round-trip flights at the airport in response to controller-staffing shortfalls. The reductions amounted to about 10% of the airline’s operation at the East Coast hub.

The carrier has argued that there are currently too many flights at Newark given the air-traffic control constraints there. It wants the FAA to tightly control capacity at Newark like it does at other busy New York airports.

Citing an increase in delays and cancellations in recent weeks, the FAA late Friday proposed limiting the hourly arrival rate at Newark. It set a meeting next week to discuss it with airlines.

“The airport clearly is unable to handle the current level of scheduled operations,” the FAA wrote in its notice.