Severe disruption at Newark Airport: Air traffic controller describes the incident as the "most perilous situation."
The Dangerous Debacle at Newark Airport:
Last week's chaotic air traffic situation at Newark Liberty International Airport left one air traffic controller shaking their head, "It was the most perilous situation you could find yourself in," they told CNN, as the chaos persists into its second week. The episode has resulted in over a thousand cancelled flights, bringing renewed attention to the outdated air traffic control system at the bustling airport, with multiple controllers taking leaves of absence, amidst a nationwide worker shortage in the crucial role.
Flights arriving at Newark - one of the busiest airports in the United States - were experiencing an average delay of four hours as of Tuesday evening, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, with disruptions expected to continue.
The air traffic controller, who preferred to remain anonymous, arrived back from their break to find their colleagues recovering from a 60-90 second-long outage during which they could not see planes on radar scopes or communicate with pilots. "I wouldn't call it panic, but it was a frenzy," they said. "We were trying to figure out what was working, what wasn't."
The Catastrophic Collapse:
The outage was traced back to an issue with a single data feed connecting the old facility to the new one. "It basically lacks redundancy," the controller explained. "We were operating under the impression that there was a single stream coming in that carried both (radar and radio communication)." The feed had gone down at least twice before, they added.
A Terrifying Encounter in the Skies:
In a previous incident, controllers were unable to communicate with the crew of a FedEx MD-11, causing the plane to overshoot the final approach path into Newark and enter the busy airspace over LaGuardia Airport. On November 6, approach controllers lost communication with planes for about five minutes, according to air traffic control audio recordings.
The FAA's Action Plan:
In response, the FAA announced it will be increasing air traffic controller staffing and replacing the telecommunications line involved in the loss of communication. The agency will be deploying three new, high-bandwidth telecommunications connections between New York and Philadelphia, providing updated fiberoptic technology with greater bandwidth and speed. A temporary backup system will also be installed to offer redundancy during the switch to a more reliable fiberoptic network. The Philadelphia facility will eventually stop relying on a feed from New York.
The Emotional Toll:
Approximately 15 to 20 flights were being controlled by Newark Liberty approach controllers when the communication and radar went down on April 28. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has noted that the system used to manage air traffic at Newark is "ancient," using floppy disks and copper wires. On Monday, Duffy told Fox News that controllers lost primary communication, but the backup line did not immediately take over. A source told CNN that the situation resembled driving with a blindfold. "Imagine driving down the highway in traffic, and someone puts a blindfold over your eyes and tells you to keep driving - when you come back from driving blind, you have to figure out what to do next," they said.
Los Angeles-based retired air traffic controller Colin Scoggins explained, "If you can't communicate with a pilot, you're in deep trouble. I'd find it incredibly traumatic." Scoggins recounted listening to air traffic control conversations from the outage, saying, "Sitting there watching the situation unfold is like watching 9/11 unfold – you see situations unfold that you can't control. And when you're a controller, you want to be in control. When that's taken away, it can be very traumatic."
Five FAA employees - a supervisor, three controllers, and one trainee - have taken 45 days of medical leave following the outage. "This stuff takes a toll on you, especially when we keep saying this is going to happen again, and it seems to fall on deaf ears," the air traffic controller said. Aviation analyst Miles O'Brien, however, commended the controllers, stating, "I believe in those people doing their job, but there's only so much stress they can take."
- The air traffic controller shared their perspective on the recent Newark Airport air traffic situation, stating, "It was the most perilous situation you could find yourself in."
- The outage at Newark Airport has been attributed to an issue with a single data feed connecting the old facility to the new one, as the controller explained, "We were operating under the impression that there was a single stream coming in that carried both (radar and radio communication)."
- The emotional toll of the Newark Airport air traffic situation was discussed, with a source telling CNN, "Imagine driving down the highway in traffic, and someone puts a blindfold over your eyes and tells you to keep driving - when you come back from driving blind, you have to figure out what to do next."
- In response to the incident, the FAA announced a new action plan, which includes increasing air traffic controller staffing, replacing the telecommunications line, and installing a temporary backup system, as well as deploying three new, high-bandwidth telecommunications connections between New York and Philadelphia.
