A new software update prevented a third radar outage in the last two weeks at New Jersey’s busy Newark airport when a telecommunications line failed again over the weekend, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday.
At a news conference, Duffy also said the recent problems that have led to hundreds of cancellations and delays in Newark could have been avoided had action been taken by President Joe Biden’s administration to better equip the air traffic control facility in Philadelphia — particularly after issues with the hardware in October and November that should have set off alarms.
Duffy said the update the Federal Aviation Administration installed Friday night helped ensure the backup system worked on Sunday when there was another problem with the primary line coming into the air traffic control facility in Philadelphia. When a similar issue happened Friday and on April 28, the radar and communications systems went offline briefly, leaving controllers unable to see or talk to the planes.
The FAA restricted traffic into Newark Liberty International Airport after the first incident, partly because several air traffic controllers went out on trauma leave afterward, worsening the already short staffing. Those limits, designed to keep flights safe, combined with an ongoing runway construction project in Newark, led to all the cancellations and delays. Later this week, the FAA will meet with all the airlines to discuss making those limits last into the summer.
Even though the radar system stayed online Sunday, controllers were worried because of the two previous outages, so Duffy said they stopped all traffi