Construction Accident Cripples Northeast Air Traffic

Traffic was snarled at several major Northeast U.S. airports yesterday afternoon due to “equipment outages” at the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON). As a result, the agency ordered ground stops at Newark Liberty International (KEWR), Philadelphia International (KPHL), John F. Kennedy International (KJFK), LaGuardia (KLGA), Teterboro (KTEB), and Westchester County airports. 

According to reports, the primary communications line at the FAA’s Philadelphia facility failed earlier in the day. The outage was compounded by the accidental severing of a Verizon fiber-optic cable running parallel to the Amtrak rail line in New Jersey.

According to a statement from the communications provider, an NJ Transit contractor working in the area dug up and cut the cable. Verizon, which said its facilities were fully functional up to that point, immediately deployed technicians to restore service. The combined failures left controllers without radar or communications for hours.

All the ground stops were canceled by yesterday evening, but the damage was done to flight schedules. Resulting ground delays of up to five hours were in place at KEWR, while at nearby business aviation hub Teterboro Airport they spanned half that time.

“We saw the system come back, and we were in recovery mode for several hours, but by the end of the evening, we were pretty much back to normal,” said Heidi Williams, NBAA’s senior v-p of operations.