Another technology outage at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International airport briefly left air traffic controllers operating blind on the morning of 9 May.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirms that a telecommunications outage impacted communications and radar display at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, which guides air traffic at Newark.
The outage began at 03:55 and lasted for about 90s, according to the FAA.
The episode follows a similar but longer outage last week, and previous outages in April and November.
Newark’s ATC system has been under an intense spotlight for the past week as technology failures and staffing issues have led to hundreds of flight cancellations.
Following last week’s outage at Newark, reports suggested that controllers had walked off the job, but the union representing controllers says workers left after losing ability to track or communicate with aircraft.
Data provided by aviation analytics firm Cirium show that 13% of Newark flights were cancelled on 9 May.
On a typical day, Cirium says, fewer than 1% of Newark flights are cancelled.
United Airlines operates a massive hub at Newark has been among the most-affected carriers by ongoing ATC disruptions. Chief executive Scott Kirby has responded by urging the FAA to cap the number of hourly flights at Newark by using slot controls.
“Every other large capacity-constrained airport in the world uses slots to make sure that the number of scheduled flights in any given hour does not exceed the airport’s maximum capacity,” Kirby said in a 7 May letter to employees. Newark “is the only large airport in the world that no longer has this basic common-sense rule”.
Still, Kirby insisted in a 9 May social media post that flights to and from Newark are “absolutely safe”.
”When there are FAA issues – technology outages, staffing shortages – the FAA requires all airlines to slow down aircraft and/or cancel flights to maintain the highest levels of safety,” he says.
Aviation safety has been at the forefront of the public’s attention following the January collision of a PSA Airlines regional jet and a US Army helicopter at Ronald Reagan Washington National airport, which killed all 67 people aboard both aircraft.
On 8 May, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revealed details of a new initiative to overhaul the country’s creaking ATC system, pledging to upgrade the complex national network in as little as four years. The plan has broad support from the aviation community.
