FAA radar and radio failures disrupt more than 1,000 flights across the US.
New York: New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport were among several airports affected by ground stops on Monday (local time) following an equipment outage at the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), disrupting flights across the Northeast.
A “ground stop” is a temporary measure under which flights bound for an affected airport are held at their departure points.
According to flight-tracking service Flightradar24, JFK and LaGuardia were among the airports added to the list of destinations where flights were being held at their origin airports.
“New York airports JFK and LaGuardia have now been added to the list of airports under ground stops, with flights to those airports being held at their origin due to the FAA equipment outage,” Flightradar24 said in a post on X.
The service said the affected airports included JFK, LaGuardia, Newark, Teterboro and Philadelphia, as well as Westchester County Airport.
In its latest update, Flightradar24 said arrivals had resumed at Newark Airport, although some flights continued to be diverted.
“Arrivals have just resumed at Newark. No commercial flights landed at EWR between 09:38 and 17:22 local time today,” the flight-tracking service said in a post.
Flightradar24 also reported significant disruption at Newark, saying that 107 flights had been diverted from the airport to 34 different airports across 25 airlines as of 5:30 p.m. EDT. Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) received the highest number of diversions with 19, followed by JFK with 12. United Airlines, which operates a major hub at Newark, was the most affected carrier, accounting for 70 of the diversions.
According to the New York Post, the disruption was caused by two equipment failures and affected more than half a dozen airports across the Northeast for much of Monday.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said a circuit failure at the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control facility led to the loss of radio and radar equipment serving several airports, including JFK, LaGuardia and Newark.
The FAA said Philadelphia, Teterboro and Westchester County airports were also affected.
The outage began around 10 a.m. and led to more than 1,000 flight delays and cancellations, according to the report, as New York prepared to host world leaders and ministers for the 81st United Nations General Assembly.
Fibre-optic backup system damaged
The disruption was further compounded after officials discovered that a newly installed fibre-optic backup system in New Jersey had been damaged during construction work.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a fibre-optic line was severed during work near an Amtrak rail line, disrupting Verizon communication lines.
By 6 p.m., Duffy said the telecommunications lines had been repaired and airport operations were gradually returning to normal, although residual delays were expected.
“The telecom lines have been repaired, and all airport operations in the Northeast are resuming,” Duffy said.
Bedford also called for an overhaul of the existing infrastructure, saying the current network design needed to be improved to prevent similar failures in the future.
“The network design is terrible. And if we don’t fix the network design, we’re going to continue having these failures,” he said. (ANI)
