Washington, DC, Sept. 22 – Thousands of US flights snarled Monday when a telecommunications problem halted incoming arrivals at major East Coast airports for hours before the FAA resolved the issue late afternoon. Workers accidentally cut a New Jersey telecom line around 9:45 a.m. used by the FAA, stopping flights at New York-area airports Newark, LaGuardia and Kennedy, plus Philadelphia and Boston.
The eight-hour outage affected about 7,000 flights, with 1,400 delayed or canceled at the three New York airports. Newark saw over half its flights canceled as a United Airlines hub. More than 100 flights were diverted amid the air traffic control communications failure at the Philadelphia facility.
This exposed fragility in the aging US air traffic control system after Congress provided $12.5 billion last year for upgrades. A New Jersey Transit crew digging near markings severed the backup fiber following a failed primary circuit at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control. Verizon repaired the cable near the Amtrak line.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford stressed safety as the priority coinciding with 130 world leaders arriving for the UN General Assembly. Airports reopened as repairs finished, with Philadelphia and Boston lifting stops. Passengers should check statuses given lingering delays from this FAA telecom problem disrupting US aviation.