USA21 September, 20263 min read
Construction Workers Cut Cable, FAA Halts Flights at Newark Liberty and JFK
Cable cut at New Jersey construction site and telecom circuit failure caused FAA outage. FAA ground stops halted arrivals and departures at JFK, LaGuardia, Newark, Philadelphia, Boston.
Cable Cut Halts Flights
The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily halted incoming flights at major East Coast airports after construction workers accidentally cut a cable needed for air traffic control, triggering ground stops and delays on Monday afternoon. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the cable had been repaired and airports would resume normal operations, though delays were still expected, after the damaged cable impacted the Terminal Radar Approach Control system used to guide planes during takeoff and landing. FlightAware reported that Newark Liberty International Airport was the most heavily impacted, with 267 departing flights delayed and a further 257 flights destined for Newark also delayed, while John F Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport were also affected.
A passenger, Douglas Tewnion, said he boarded a flight to New York from Edinburgh and that his plane had been diverted to Boston, Massachusetts instead, and he told the BBC that, two hours after his flight was due into New York, he and other passengers were still "sitting on the same plane, on the tarmac at Boston with no information". US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X that the incident "caused a telecom outage" which forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground flights, and the BBC reported that Duffy said the damage was caused by workers from Amtrak.
Conflicting Details on Cause
Duffy said the damage was caused by workers from Amtrak, while an Amtrak spokesperson said in a statement reported by US media that the incident involved a NJ Transit contractor. The FAA told reporters it had "lost the primary circuit" at Philadelphia TRACON, and it said the backup fibre had a break and could take up to 13 hours to repair. NJ Transit told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that its construction workers had accidentally severed the line and that markers had been wrongly placed at the digging site, while the BBC said it had reached out to NJ Transit for comment.
Duffy said the cable had been repaired and airports would resume normal operations, while delays were still expected, and it said the major east coast disruption came ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York City on Tuesday. Sean Duffy said flights had resumed into New York’s LaGuardia and into Philadelphia, but ground stops were still in effect at Newark, JFK, and Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, and the ground stop had been lifted in Boston.
Resumption, Delays, and Funding
Bedford said the fiber break was probably 13 hours to repair and the primary circuit that failed was already scheduled to be replaced as part of a wider overhaul of the US air traffic control system.
Congress allocated $12.5 billion for modernization last year and Buttigieg was asking for an additional $17.5 billion to complete development work, framing the outage as a stress test for the aging system.
The FAA resolved a telecommunications problem late in the afternoon after it started around 9:45 a.m. ET.
The BBC reported that Duffy said the cable had been repaired and airports would resume normal operations, while delays were still expected, and it said the major east coast disruption came ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York City on Tuesday.
The Times of India reported that Bedford said the fiber break was probably 13 hours to repair and that the primary circuit that failed was already scheduled to be replaced as part of a wider overhaul of the US air traffic control system.