US Northeast flights resume after FAA communications outage disrupts Newark, Philadelphia airports

Damaged communications lines at a key air traffic control facility in Philadelphia had been repaired allowing airports across the US Northeast to resume operations after hours of disruptions the nations transportation secretary saidHundreds of flights were cancelled including more than 600 into and out of Newark Liberty International Airport as the outage hit every major airport in the New York City area on Monday Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an online post that it will take some time to clear all existing delays despite the repairsThe primary communications line at the Federal Aviation Administration facility in Philadelphia had failed earlier Monday while the backup fibre optic line was inadvertently severed by railroad construction workers The failures left controllers without radar or communications for hoursThe outage brought commercial air traffic to a nearstandstill at Newark for much of the day with no commercial flights landing at the airport from about 940 am to just after 520 pm local time according to flighttracking site Flightradar24More than 200 flights into and out of Philadelphia International Airport were also cancelled while disruptions hit LaGuardia and Kennedy airports in New York By Monday evening flights were resuming at those airports Some airlines were allowing customers to change flights without charge The FAA advised travellers to check the status of their flights before heading to the airportThe outage occurred just as President Donald Trump and numerous foreign leaders were flying into New York City for the United Nations General AssemblyCindy Phan said her morning flight from Newark to Minneapolis was repeatedly delayed before she learned around 3 pm that it had been cancelled and rescheduled for Tuesday requiring her to find and pay for another night at a hotelWe could have had a whole day in New York Phan said adding that she wanted to get home to her two little Chihuahua babies The technical problems stem from the same FAA facility in Philadelphia that caused numerous disruptions at the Newark airport last springRegional control centres like these have two lines that carry radar and communications data in and out the primary and the backup The FAA said a circuit on the primary failed Monday morning and when the system tried to switch to the backup workers discovered that the fibre optic line had been cutEarlier in the day Duffy said an Amtrak construction crew was to blame Amtrak however pointed to a New Jersey Transit construction crew that was working in the area between Newark and New Brunswick New JerseyFAA administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters earlier the agency had focused on fixing the primary connection as soon as possible by installing a new circuit on the primary line while also working to repair the backup fibre optic lineVerizon said at the time that its technicians were also working to restore service Bedford earlier described the fibre break as massive saying it would take several hours to repair according to a video posted online by a CBS reporter The primary circuit that failed is due to be replaced as part of a massive overhaul of the nations air traffic control systemAlso Monday the FAA began testing a new computer system that uses AI to help predict schedule conflicts and weather issues to help air traffic controllers reroute traffic But that system is initially being tested only in the Washington DC area so it did not appear to be linked to the outagesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever