New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport were among several airports affected by ground stops after an equipment outage at the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) disrupted flights across the Northeast.
According to flight-tracking service Flightradar24, flights bound for JFK and LaGuardia were being held at their departure airports as the outage affected air traffic control operations.
“New York airports JFK and LaGuardia have now been added to the list of airports ground stopped (flights to those airports are held on the ground at their origin) due to the FAA equipment outage,” Flightradar24 said in a post on X.
The disruption also affected Newark, Teterboro, Philadelphia and Westchester County airports.
Newark arrivals resume after major disruption
Arrivals at Newark resumed later in the day, although some flights continued to be diverted.
“Arrivals have just resumed at Newark. No commercial flights landed at EWR between 09:38 and 17:22 local time today,” Flightradar24 posted.
The service said Newark had seen widespread disruption, with 107 flights diverted to 34 different airports between the start of the outage and 5.30 pm EDT. The diversions involved 25 airlines, with Washington Dulles International Airport receiving 19 flights and JFK taking 12.
United Airlines, which operates a major hub at Newark, was the most affected, accounting for 70 of the diversions, Flightradar24 said.
Equipment failure disrupts radar and radio systems
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said a circuit failure at the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control facility caused the loss of radio and radar equipment serving several airports, including JFK, LaGuardia and Newark.
The FAA confirmed that Philadelphia, Teterboro and Westchester County airports were also affected.
The outage began at around 10 am and led to more than 1,000 flight delays or cancellations, according to reports. The disruption came as New York prepared to host world leaders and ministers for the 81st United Nations General Assembly.
The situation was further complicated by damage to a newly installed fibre-optic backup system in New Jersey.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a fibre-optic line had been cut during construction work near an Amtrak rail line, affecting Verizon communication lines.
By 6 pm, Duffy said the telecommunications lines had been repaired, and airport operations across the Northeast were returning to normal, although passengers were expected to face continuing delays.
“The telecom lines have been repaired, and all airport operations in the Northeast are resuming,” Duffy said.
FAA administrator calls for network overhaul
Bedford also raised concerns about the resilience of the existing air traffic control infrastructure and said the network needed a major overhaul to reduce the risk of similar failures.
“The network design is terrible. And if we don’t fix the network design, we’re going to continue having these failures,” he said.
The outage disrupted airports across the New York and Philadelphia region, with airlines diverting flights and passengers facing delays as authorities worked to restore normal operations.
(With ANI inputs)
