Flights halted out of Newark and Philadelphia after air traffic equipment failure

A major circuit blew at the Philadelphia facility that controls air traffic to Newark Liberty International, Teterboro and Philadelphia airports Monday — causing widespread delays and cancellations to thousands of flyers on the East Coast. Dozens of planes were left idling for hours on runways across the region while the FAA scrambled to repair the issue affecting Philadelphia’s Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, facility that houses both a radar approach control room and an air traffic control tower. Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford said a major circuit blew at that facility and when they tried to get the backup system up and running, they discovered the backup line had been cut at a New Jersey construction site. “That fiber break is probably 13 hours to repair,” Bedford warned. “It’s massive, I’m told. Meanwhile, we’ve got the new circuit ready to install now.” Bedford said the circuit could be replaced as early as Monday afternoon. “An Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut into a fiber line in New Jersey which caused a telecom outage and forced FAA to pause flights in the Northeast,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a posting on X shortly before 3 p.m. “This incident underscores the need for additional funding to modernize aging infrastructure and prevent disruptions like this in the future,” Duffy wrote. Initially, the FAA ordered ground stops at Newark Liberty International, Teterboro and Philadelphia airports. Later, the ground stops were expanded to both LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports in New York City, forcing officials to cancel hundreds of flights. Duffy wrote that flights were resuming at Philadelphia and LaGuardia but not at the other affected airports. The ground stop at Newark began around 10 a.m. after the ground stops at Teterboro and Philadelphia went into effect. The result was departure delays of up to 150 minutes out of Newark and Philadelphia, according to the FAA’s website. As of 3 p.m. ET, there were 368 flights canceled at Newark airport and 140 flights canceled at Philadelphia, according to data from flightaware.com. Hundreds of additional flights were delayed at both airports. One pilot appeared to be in the dark about what was causing the delays, according to an audio obtained by NBC News from ATC.com. “What’s with the ungodly takeoff lines,” a pilot asked the air traffic control tower in Philadelphia at 11:45 a.m., according to the ATC.com audio. “Equipment issues,” a controller replied. “Is that expected to continue?” the pilot asked. “No clue,” the controller said. This is one of the heaviest air travel corridors in the country, and last year an equipment malfunction left about a dozen planes flying blind for 90 seconds in the crowded skies over New Jersey. Duffy insisted at the time that there was never any danger of planes colliding during that brief communications breakdown.