Newark airport in US hit by new radar outage amid flight woes

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday that it suffered a new outage at a Philadelphia facility overseeing air traffic at Newark Liberty airport, the latest in a string of equipment woes that have hindered traffic and raised public alarm.

The FAA said the telecommunications outage affected communications and radar displays at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control that guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty around 3.55am on Friday and lasted around 90 seconds.

WABC reported air traffic controllers could be heard on a radio transmission telling a FedEx plane that their screens went dark.

The latest incident highlights the air traffic control network’s ageing infrastructure and comes a day after US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy proposed spending billions of dollars to fix it over the next three to four years.

On Friday, the FAA announced plans to meet with major airlines on Wednesday to discuss potential temporary flight reductions at Newark airport due to recent disruptions from equipment and staffing issues. Problems have affected hundreds of flights since April 28, particularly from United Airlines, the largest carrier at the airport located just outside New York.

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American Airlines jet collides with Black Hawk helicopter near Washington’s Reagan Airport

American Airlines jet collides with Black Hawk helicopter near Washington’s Reagan Airport

The FAA said it is increasing air traffic controller staffing, adding three new, high-bandwidth telecommunications connections and deploying a temporary backup system to the Philadelphia TRACON during the switch to a more reliable fibre-optic network.