The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States confirmed that there was another system failure at the Newark Airport air traffic control facilities this Monday (May 19), resulting in a communication interruption of about two seconds. The incident occurred around 11:35 a.m., and while no safety accidents were caused, it once again raised concerns from the public about the stability of air traffic control.
This malfunction follows multiple instances of communication and radar interruptions at the Newark Airport traffic control facilities over the past few weeks. Since April 28, there have been at least three similar incidents at the facility, leading to some flight diversions and passenger delays. Despite a system upgrade by the FAA on May 11 aimed at preventing further errors, the latest incident shows that the issue has not been fully resolved.
An FAA spokesperson stated that in recent individual meetings with several airlines, the FAA suggested temporarily reducing the flight volume at Newark Airport, with a preliminary plan to allow only 28 aircraft to land per hour.
In addition to facility-related factors, the FAA also acknowledged that human resources are one of the current challenges. There are currently only 24 certified controllers responsible for the Newark airspace, which is below the standard staffing level of 38 for that area.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently stated that the federal government will invest billions of dollars over the next 3 to 4 years to upgrade the national air traffic control system to address equipment aging and capacity pressures. He also mentioned that since the responsibility for controlling the Newark airspace was transferred from New York to Philadelphia last year, some system transition operations and personnel adjustments have not been fully completed.