A air traffic control facility guiding airplanes at Newark Liberty International Airport had a brief stoppage on Friday morning, the latest technological disorder in one of the nation’s busiest airports.
The interruption, which influenced communications and the radar that appears in a facility in Philadelphia, happened shortly before 4am and lasted about 90 seconds, the federal aviation service said.
A similar interruption of 90 seconds last week, on Monday afternoon, went up to the airport, letting the auditors not communicate with pilots and keep the planes crashing on each other. Several auditors working that afternoon were distressed by this incident and receiving time, which resulted in several days of low -staffing in the facility, causing extensive flight delays and cancellations.
Problems in Newark and other aviation safety concerns have become a major challenge for President Trump. A few days after taking up his duties, an American Airlines plane and the army helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan in Washington, killing all in both aircraft.
Karoline Leavitt, White House Secretary, told reporters on Friday that it was caused in the morning “the same telecommunications and software issues set last week”.
“Everything went back to the internet after a short break, and there was no operational impact,” Ms Leavitt said. Federal transport workers “work to address this technical issue tonight to prevent further holidays” and plan to install new fiber optic cables from Newark Airport in Philadelphia, he said. The goal is to fully upgrade the system from summer, he added.
On Thursday, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy announced a plan to modernize and revise the country’s air traffic control system. The proposal, which will cost billions of dollars, includes investing in new technologies and facilities. But many details remain unclear and the plan will require approval from Congress.
The last break on Friday is likely to step up pressure on administration officials and legislators to act.
An air traffic controller that directs release at Newark early Friday reported the last break on the FedEx Flight 1989 pilot when it happened, according to a public recording of air traffic control communications communications.
“Fedex 1989, I’ll deliver you here – our fields just went black again,” the auditor said. “If you are interested in this, contact your airline and try to get some pressure to fix these things.”
“Sorry I heard it,” the pilot replied.
In a separate exchange, one auditor told another pilot for the interruption and ordered the pilot to maintain the distance if the pilot could not reach the controller.
ABC News reported the interruption earlier.
Flights to and from Newark were delayed on Friday morning. FAA also launched a “ground delay program”, which remained in force at noon. It paid flights intended for Newark to their average of their origin for more than four hours due to rain in and around New York. Newark Airport is about 17 miles away from Midtown Manhattan.
A spokesman for the New York Port Authority and New Jersey, who is exploiting Newark, said the interruption did not affect passenger operations at the airport.
Newark has long problems. FAA recently hoped to face a staffing deficit among air traffic auditors last summer, moving some businesses for Newark from New York Westbury to Long Island, Philadelphia. The installation auditors in New York had struggled with relocation, but FAA said it could hire more auditors by moving the project to a more affordable area.
About 10 % of the flights to and by Newark were canceled from the beginning of last week to Wednesday, according to FlightAware data, a flight monitoring service. The other two airports that serve the New York area went much better. During the same period, only about 2 % of flights were canceled at Laguardia Airport and 1 % at Kennedy International Airport. Newark also saw much more delays than the other two airports.
Disorders are particularly disappointing for United Airlines, which counts Newark as one of the eight knots of the airport and dominates traffic there. More than two of the three flights to and from the airport are sold by United. A variety of airlines represents the rest of the flights, according to Cirium, an aviation data company.
In an email to employees this week, United CEO Scott Kirby said the flights to and from the airport remained safe. Newark is a “jewelry of the area”, he said, but the airport is overwhelmed, with more flights scheduled for most afternoons and evenings than FAA said it could handle.
“This mathematician doesn’t work,” he said. “Especially when there are weather conditions, staffing or technology analyzes – airspace, routes and routes routes take into account and the gridlock appears.”
To solve the problem, Mr Kirby said, FAA will have to reverse a 2016 decision that has relaxed the restrictions on the number of flights planned to the airport in an effort to promote competition in Newark.
In extremely congested airports around the world, including Kennedy and Laguardia, air authorities can choose to strictly control the number of opportunities for take -off and land, known as “slots”. Newark was similarly controlled by the reception, but FAA relaxed these restrictions in 2016.
At that time, United was accused of holding, but did not use some sockets to maintain its dominance at the airport, which remained mostly unchanged. The airline criticized the decision in 2016, saying it would further accelerate New York’s airspace. FAA is still considering the Newark flight programs, but no longer restricts and assigns slots there.
Michael Levenson; Neil vigdor and Patrick mcgeehan They contributed reports.
