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Airspace across parts of the Northeast was temporarily closed for at least 30 minutes on Monday (September 21) after a critical equipment outage disrupted flight operations at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the disruption began when a circuit blew at a Philadelphia air traffic control facility early Monday morning. When officials attempted to switch to the backup system, they found that a backup line had been cut at a New Jersey construction site, according to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford.
The outage resulted in the FAA pausing flights at Newark and Philadelphia, two of the region’s busiest airports. The situation affected dozens of flights, leading to delays and cancellations that rippled across the Northeast corridor. This marks the latest in a series of air traffic disruptions at Newark Liberty, where technical issues have caused repeated outages in recent weeks.
FAA statements noted that the Philadelphia TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control) Area C facility, which manages aircraft in and out of Newark and Philadelphia, has experienced multiple equipment challenges. On Sunday (September 20), a separate audio issue prompted a 45-minute ground stop at Newark, with similar communication problems also reported earlier in the month. According to the FAA, these incidents have sometimes led to controllers briefly losing radar and communication abilities with aircraft, prompting safety protocols and flight halts.
Travelers faced mounting delays, with flight-tracking data from FlightAware showing hundreds of delays and dozens of cancellations over the weekend.