Telecommunications failure hit major Northeast airports, causing delays, cancellations and diversions
A telecommunications failure involving the Federal Aviation Administration triggered widespread delays and cancellations that affected about 7,000 flights across the United States this week.
The problem primarily affected the Northeast and disrupted operations at major airports including JFK, LaGuardia, Newark, Philadelphia and Boston.
The outage began Monday and prompted the FAA to temporarily halt arrivals at some of the country’s busiest airports.
Fiber-optic line was damaged
According to information released about the incident, a fiber-optic line used by the FAA’s telecommunications system was damaged in New Jersey.
The problem disrupted communications needed for some air traffic control operations.
The FAA worked with companies and local crews to restore service.
Operations began returning to normal later that day.
Thousands of passengers were affected
By the end of the disruption, approximately 7,000 flights nationwide had been delayed or canceled.
More than 1,400 flights were affected at major New York-area airports alone.
Some aircraft also had to be diverted to other airports.
Even a disruption concentrated in the Northeast can affect passengers elsewhere because aircraft and crews move between different cities throughout the day.
Incident increases pressure for modernization
The disruption renewed attention on the infrastructure used to manage U.S. airspace.
Congress has already allocated $12.5 billion for improvements to the system.
Federal officials are seeking additional funding to replace aging equipment and networks.
Modernizing the air traffic control system has become one of the FAA’s priorities as travel demand grows and recent operational failures highlight weaknesses in the existing infrastructure.
Sources: Reuters and Federal Aviation Administration.
