- Newark Airport experienced multiple air traffic control issues over the weekend, including an audio issue on Sunday.
- An outage at an air traffic control facility on Friday was the third such incident in two weeks.
- Other similar issues have occurred at other airports such as Atlanta which had a runway equipment issue on Sunday.
Newark Liberty International Airport experienced delays and flight cancellations following multiple air traffic control problems over the weekend.
On Sunday, an equipment issue caused the Federal Aviation Administration to order a 45-minute ground stop at the Newark airport, according to ABC.
Delays had been affecting flights at the New Jersey airport for weeks due to short staffing at an air traffic control facility in Philadelphia, which controls the flights in and out of the airport, per CNN.
There was also a brief outage which occurred overnight on Friday, causing delays, the third such outage in two weeks.
On Monday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spoke about the issues at Newark Airport during a press briefing, where he blamed the problems on old technology and the Biden Administration.
Sunday‘s telecommunications issue at Newark
The FAA clarified that Sunday‘s delays were not due to an outage but rather an audio issue.
According to ABC, there were popping sounds on a number of radio frequencies between air traffic controllers and pilots. The air traffic controllers were able to communicate with aircraft despite the radio system not working correctly and they had to switch to a backup system.
This “telecommunications issue” led to controllers halting planes taking off from Newark and landing at the airport for 45 minutes, per CNN.
The issue occurred at the Philadelphia TRACON Area C facility, which guides flights coming in and out of the New Jersey Airport.
“The FAA briefly slowed aircraft in and out of the airport while we ensured redundancies were working as designed,” the FAA said in a statement per CNN.
Operations returned to normal later in the day on Sunday after 300 flights were delayed or canceled because of the ground stop, according to NBC.
Recent outages at the Newark airport
According to CNN, since November there have been at least four outages at PHL TRACON Area C, three of those have been in the last two weeks.
The latest of these outages was on Friday, the radar screens at the airport went black for around 90 seconds at approximately 3:55 a.m. ET.
The FAA said that Friday’s outage was caused by a “telecommunications outage that impacted communications and radar display at Philadelphia TRACON Area C,” per ABC.
There was another outage at the Newark Airport on April 28, which caused air traffic control computer screens to go dark for around 60 to 90 seconds. This outage also prevented the controls from communicating with aircraft at that time.
All flights to and from the Newark airport were stopped by the FAA as a result of the outage.
On April 30, another minor outage occurred at the airport in New Jersey, per ABC.
Issues at other airports on Sunday
Other airports have also been facing issues with air traffic controller staffing shortages and equipment issues.
On Sunday a ground stop was ordered at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport following an issue with runway equipment, per CNN.
There were 1,337 flights delayed in Atlanta, which is 55% of the planes departing and arriving at the airport.
FAA staffing shortages at a control tower in Austin, Texas, caused 145 flights to be delayed, according to CNN.
What Sean Duffy said about the issues at Newark
In a press briefing broadcast on C-SPAN on Monday, Duffy said that old technology was at the core of the issues that have occurred at the Newark Airport over the last few weeks.
Duffy also blamed the Biden administration for the current issues at the airport. He added that he will ask the Office of Inspector General to conduct an investigation into why the radar center controlling the airport was moved to Philadelphia.
The transportation secretary also announced plans to reduce the volume of flights at the airport and he committed to making long-term infrastructure upgrades, even through they will take years to implement, per NewsNation.
“Families shouldn’t have to wait four or five hours for a flight that never takes off,” Duffy said. “By lowering the number of flights, we can ensure the ones that are kept do actually take off and they do actually land.”