‘Scopes just went black again’: US’ Newark airport hit by new radar outage

NEWARK/WASHINGTON – A facility that guides air traffic in and out of Newark airport suffered a new 90-second communications outage early on May 9, the second in two weeks, prompting an air traffic controller to complain that “scopes just went black again” to a nearby FedEx flight.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the telecommunications outage impacted communications and radar displays at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (Tracon) that guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport around 3.55am Eastern Time on May 9 (3.55pm in Singapore) and lasted approximately 90 seconds.

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

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said “there was a glitch in the system” caused by the same telecoms issue that caused the prior incident. She said the goal was to address the technical issue later on May 9 “to prevent further issues”.

A recording of an exchange obtained by Reuters discussed the outage with a pilot.

“FedEx 1989, I’m going to hand you off here, our scopes just went black again,” the controller told the pilot. “If you care about this, contact your airline and try to get some pressure for them to fix this stuff.”

The pilot responded that he was sorry to hear of the outage.

FedEx said the plane made it safely from Newark to Boston without issue. “We appreciate the professionalism and actions of our crew members and the controllers in safely addressing this challenging situation,” the company said in a statement.

The FAA said on May 7 it was

taking immediate steps to address ongoing problems

that have disrupted hundreds of flights at Newark since April 28, especially those from United Airlines, the largest carrier at the airport located just outside New York City.

United said on May 9 the FAA outage impacted its Newark operations but did not elaborate. It has sharply cut flights and wants the FAA to impose new limitations on Newark flights to address ongoing delays.

“Decades of failing to properly invest in the system has prevented good-faith efforts to make technology upgrades and bolster the staffing of our nation’s hard-working air traffic controllers,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in a Fox News op-ed on May 9.

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.

Mr Duffy said on May 8 that the FAA had two redundant lines and “both are up and working now” at Philadelphia.

The FAA did not immediately answer why the backup did not prevent May 9’s incident.

Lawmakers demanded action. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on May 9 the connection between New York airspace and the Philadelphia air traffic control centre must be fixed now. “This cannot happen again,” he warned.

Representative Rick Larsen, top Democrat on the committee overseeing the FAA, said the safety of the travelling public cannot continue being put at risk.

“Problems with our system have crossed administrations, but safety improvements cannot span generations. We need action now,” he said.

Newark airport has been hit by runway construction, FAA equipment outages and air traffic control staffing shortages that prompted urgent calls from lawmakers for investigations and new funding. FlightAware said there were nearly 380 flights delayed and 141 cancelled.

Mr Duffy said on May 8 that controllers overseeing planes at the busy airport

lost contact with aircraft on April 28 for 30 to 90 seconds

, an incident that raised serious alarm.

The FAA in 2024 relocated control of the Newark airspace to Philadelphia to address staffing issues and congested New York City area traffic. REUTERS