Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the glitches are occurring ‘as the information comes in, it’s overloading some of our lines, and the system goes down.’
Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey experienced another air traffic equipment outage on May 11, causing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue a temporary ground stop for all flights bound for the airport.
While specific details of the outage were not described in the advisories, the FAA confirmed the incident to The Epoch Times.
“There was a telecommunications issue at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, which guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport airspace,” an FAA spokesperson wrote in a statement. “The FAA briefly slowed aircraft in and out of the airport while we ensured redundancies were working as designed. Operations have returned to normal.”
According to the FAA, Friday’s incident was a telecommunications outage that impacted both communications and radar display at the facility.
A similar incident occurred on a busy afternoon on April 28, with a 30-second lapse in communication between airplanes and the control towers. The incident resulted in five air traffic controllers from the control facility taking trauma leave. Additionally, more than 1,000 flights were canceled, and the FAA announced it would temporarily slow traffic in and out of the busy northeastern airport.
In a Sunday interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the facility’s equipment was antiquated, and said the software “glitch” would be fixed soon.
“We have to fix this, because what you see in Newark is going to happen in other places across the country,” Duffy said, describing the problem as ongoing telecommunication issues.
“As the information comes in, it’s overloading some of our lines, and the system goes down,” he said. “Specifically, in Newark, we believe we’re going to have it up and running. In short order, we’re going to be able to fix that glitch.
“And we feel a little more comfortable about our primary line that gets the data in, on radar, and our redundant line is up and working as well.”
Duffy did not say how long to expect delays and cancellations at the Newark airport, but said “reduced capacity” would continue for at least the “next several weeks.”
“I’m convening the meeting of all the airlines that serve Newark, get them to agree on how they’re going to reduce the capacity. So you book, you fly,” he said.
Duffy said the Transportation Department is working on building a new line that runs directly from Newark to the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control and hopes to have it complete by the end of the summer.
He also offered an up-front bonus to incentivize certain air traffic controllers to stay—those who are nearing retirement age and considering leaving their posts.
Veteran air traffic controllers are “the best controllers we have in the airspace, let’s give them a bonus,” Duffy said. “I’m going to give them a 20 percent upfront bonus to stay on the job. Don’t retire. Keep serving your country.”
Overhauling Air Traffic Control
On May 8, Duffy announced his plan to overhaul and upgrade America’s air traffic control systems and technology.
Those efforts will include upgrading telecommunication lines to fiber optics, rebuilding some air traffic control towers and Terminal Radar Approach Controls, and implementing new radios in towers to “communicate between air traffic controllers and with airplanes.”
“We’re going to rebuild some centers, not all of them, but we’re going to rebuild a few of them that need to be rebuilt,” Duffy said at a press conference.
The transportation secretary said the plans also include new ground radar sensors on airport tarmacs.
“Our air traffic controllers, who are in the tower, are looking out with binoculars to see airplanes,” Duffy said. “If it’s cloudy or rainy, the weather’s bad, it becomes very challenging. We want to have all the tools so they can see where aircraft are at the airport on their screens on their terminals.”
The Transportation Department will also introduce a new flight management system to improve airspace efficiency and allow airlines to better manage their flight, as well as new hardware, software, and equipment for controllers to overhaul and upgrade America’s air traffic control, he noted.
Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
