A backup software system installed at the control center overseeing New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) has prevented a third outage of its radar and telecommunications equipment.
According to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, the backup software ensured operations continued when the primary radar and communications system went down on Sunday, May 11. Newark’s flights are guided by traffic controllers at Philadelphia International Airport, where there is a remote line installed to feed communications and radar information from the New York-area airspace to the Philadelphia tower.
On Sunday, that remote line went down for a third time in recent weeks, but the backup feed kicked on, Duffy said in a news conference on Monday.
Still, officials decided to shutdown Newark’s airspace for about 45 minutes on Sunday “out of an abundance of caution,” Duffy said, even though the backup technology ensured radar and telecommunications stayed online.
The successful usage of the backup line is finally a positive sign for air traffic operations at Newark, which have been in a state of havoc since April 28, when the radar and communications feed to Philadelphia went down for the first time, preventing air traffic controllers from seeing planes on their screens for a total of 90 seconds. Several controllers then needed to take a leave of absence because the experience was traumatic, leading to short-staffing in the control center. A second brief outage happened again just before 4 a.m. on May 9, before the backup system was installed.
The backup software is part of a package of immediate updates the FAA is implementing at the Philadelphia control center to ease the situation at Newark. Other solutions include replacing antiquated copper wiring with new fiber optics and adding three new telecommunications lines between the New York area and Philadelphia to increase high-speed reliability and redundancy.
“The equipment that we use is so old that the information has to be slowed down,” Duffy said on Monday. “It comes in too fast. It has to go at the speed of copper wires.” The fixes are being fast-tracked by the FAA, according to Duffy, who noted that new fiber optic lines are already in place at Newark, New York LaGuardia, and New York JFK, but they still require a few weeks of testing before they can go live. Duffy also said the department would be launching an investigation into the decision to move Newark’s air traffic control operations from the New York area down to Philadelphia. The move happened in July 2024 as an attempt to solve chronic low-staffing levels at the New York-area control tower.
In the meantime the FAA will continue to limit the number of flights that can land at EWR to ensure neither the technology nor the short-staffed controllers become overwhelmed. The limits keep the airspace safe, however, they’ve also caused widespread flight delays and cancellations—and have frustrated thousands of travelers.
Officials will have a delay-reduction meeting with airlines operating at Newark later this week, according to Duffy, which would likely entail discussions on reducing the number of flights taking off and landing at EWR. “Families shouldn’t have to wait four or five hours for a flight that never takes off,” Duffy said. “If we reduce the number of flights at Newark, we’re not doing it to annoy people, we’re not doing it to delay peoples’ travel, what we’re doing is guaranteeing safety.”
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