Chaos at Newark Liberty International Airport has left fliers and staff on edge as air traffic control problems worsen and officials warn about the growing problem.
Newark airport in New Jersey has been plagued with equipment failures and staff shortages that have triggered severe delays and cancellations this month. On Tuesday alone, 33 flights leaving the airport have already been canceled and another 11 delayed. Another 36 flights scheduled to land at the New Jersey airport have been called off.
In one particularly troubling incident, air traffic controllers briefly lost communication with an aircraft last week, which led to some staff going on trauma leave for 45 days.
One staffer who handles air traffic at Newark told the Wall Street Journal that it was one of the most stressful situations of their career. “Our staffing is in dire straits—it’s awful—not safe or efficient in any way,” the controller told the outlet. “It’s a crisis and the public doesn’t know about it…It’s happening here at Newark and nobody wants to pay attention until lives are lost.”
The incident and staffing shortages that followed resulted in hundreds of flight cancellations last week, spilling over into this week.
“The primary communication line went down, the backup line didn’t fire, and so for 30 seconds we lost contact with air traffic,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said of the incident in a Fox News interview Monday. “Now were planes going to crash? No,” he said. “They have communication devices…But it’s a sign that we have a frail system in place, and it has to be fixed.”
Passengers caught up in the delays said they were anxious about staff shortages and equipment failure. “As concerning as the manpower issue is, according to news reports, the equipment that they’re using out of Philadelphia is antiquated,” passenger Mark Wallace told CNN.
A former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, Peter Goelz, told the network that the concern was justified.
“We have a very safe system, but anytime it’s stressed like this, where you have controllers who are feeling under maximum pressure, it impacts safety – and people have a right to be concerned,” Goelz said.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said that Newark’s air traffic control has been “chronically understaffed for years” in a statement last week.
“In the past few days, on more than one occasion, technology that FAA air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed – resulting in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delayed and canceled flights and worst of all, thousands of customers with disrupted travel plans,” Kirby said.
Scrutiny has mounted on America’s air traffic control systems following the deadly midair crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in January, where 67 people were killed.
Duffy is expected to unveil a plan Thursday that will overhaul the “antiquated” air traffic control system.
