On Thursday, August 28th, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States stated that flights heading to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey were affected due to equipment malfunctions impacting the radio frequencies used by some air traffic controllers.
According to Bloomberg, the FAA mentioned in an email that while the ground stop has been lifted, the agency is still slowing down the arrival and departure rates of flights at Newark Airport. This could result in a significant number of flights experiencing delays or diversions.
The FAA website indicated that Teterboro Airport had also issued a ground stop earlier in the day. Teterboro is a hub for private planes flying into New York City.
The grounding on Thursday occurred just before the Labor Day long weekend in the United States, which is one of the busiest travel periods in the country.
The company in charge of managing the incoming and outgoing flights at Newark Airport is the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON). In late April, there was an incident of radar and communication outage for over a minute, leading to flight disruptions and calls for modernizing and upgrading the US air traffic control system.