Inside the multi-day meltdown at Newark airport
By Amanda Musa, Aaron Cooper and Pete Muntean, CNN
(CNN) — Air traffic controllers in Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control had been guiding planes to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey last week when communication went down.
“Approach, are you there?” one pilot asked the controller, who had stopped responding. United Airlines flight 1951, flying from New Orleans to Newark, a major hub for the company, tried to radio the controller five times before they got a response.
“United 1951, how do you hear me?” the controller finally asks, according to air traffic control conversations recorded by the website LiveATC.net.
“I got you loud and clear, United 1951,” the pilot responds.
But those 30 seconds of silence when communication went down ultimately cascaded into a weeklong meltdown at Newark, one of the nation’s largest airports. It resulted in delays and cancellations for thousands of customers, controllers taking leave for trauma, and renewed scrutiny on an outdated air traffic control system.
The chaos also highlighted the challenges of an understaffed air traffic control system, the latest incident in an already turbulent year for aviation that included a deadly collision between a passenger jet and US army helicopter.
“I don’t know where you are”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News Monday traffic controllers had lost the primary communication and the backup line did not immediately take over. Audio obtained by CNN shows the tense moments from the afternoon of April 28.
“United (flight) 674, radar contact lost,” a controller tells a pilot flying to Newark from Charleston, South Carolina. “We lost our radar so just stay on the arrival and maintain 6000 (feet).”
The same flight, traveling at hundreds of miles an hour, returns to the radar but does not show up in an accurate position.
The connectivity between Federal Aviation Administration radar and the frequencies that air traffic controllers use to manage planes flying in and out of the airport “completely failed,” a source with knowledge of the situation said. Without radar, another approach controller told the pilot of a smaller aircraft to rely on towers for clearance.
“Do I have bravo clearance?” the pilot asks. Bravo clearance is permission to enter into the airspace surrounding a larger airport, like Newark Liberty International.
“No, you do not have a bravo clearance. We lost our radar and it’s not working correctly. Radar service terminates… If you want a bravo clearance, you can just call the tower when you get closer,” the controller said.
About 15 – 20 flights were being controlled by Newark Liberty International Airport approach controllers when communication and radar went down on Monday, April 28, according to an analysis by flight tracking site Flightradar24.
The number is based on the altitude of aircraft bound for and departing Newark and audio from the approach radio frequency, Ian Petchenik, the Director of Communications for the site tells CNN.
No crashes occurred, but at least five FAA employees took 45 days of trauma leave afterward.
The incident has compounded existing staffing shortages and equipment failures and contributed to frustrating hourslong delays for passengers, Duffy told Fox News.
More than 150 flights into or out of the airport on Monday were canceled, with more than 350 flights delayed, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
The FAA has indicated it expects delays at the airport to continue due to the staffing shortages. Duffy added that authorities will have to slow traffic at Newark before restoring full capacity.
A traumatic event
The current shortage of air traffic controllers is nearly the worst in 30 years, said the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents 10,800 certified air traffic controllers across the country.
The control facility responsible for traffic at Newark has been “chronically understaffed for years,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a Friday message addressing the delays. He also said the shortage was compounded by over 20% of FAA controllers who “walked off the job” at Newark Airport last week.
A CNN analysis of FAA airspace advisories shows at least 14 straight days of FAA-imposed delays for flights to or from Newark.
The controller’s union said workers did not “walk off the job.”
“The controllers didn’t just walk off the job they were traumatized, their equipment failed,” the source with knowledge of the situation said. “It’s written in the regulations if they experience a traumatic event —they can take time off to go see psychiatrist.. the people working that day did that.”
But filling those empty positions is not an issue that can be sorted overnight, according to the FAA.
Air traffic control applicants must be less than 31 years old so they can work the mandatory 20 or 25 years needed to qualify for pensions before their mandatory retirement age of 56, according to the FAA. Physical stamina and mental sharpness is also required to do the job.
“While we cannot quickly replace (the controllers) due to this highly specialized profession, we continue to train controllers who will eventually be assigned to this busy airspace,” the FAA said.
A frail system in place
Flights arriving to Newark were experiencing an average delay of 4 hours and 54 minutes as of Monday evening.
One passenger, Geraldine Wallace, told CNN Sunday she was anxious about the staffing shortage after her flight was delayed for almost three hours.
Mark Wallace, her partner, told CNN he was more worried about equipment failures.
“As concerning as the manpower issue is, according to news reports, the equipment that they’re using out of Philadelphia is antiquated,” he said.
The Department of Transportation will announce a plan Thursday to transform the air traffic control system, remodeling an outdated system that contributed to days of delays at Newark International Airport, Duffy, the transportation secretary, told Fox News on Monday.
The system used to manage air traffic at Newark is “incredibly old,” Duffy said.
“We use floppy disks. We use copper wires,” he said Friday. “The system that we’re using is not effective to control the traffic that we have in the airspace today.”
Duffy has since pledged to implement a new, “state-of-the-art” system at air traffic control facilities across the country that would be the “envy of the world” – but said it might take three to four years.
“We are going to radically transform the way air traffic control looks,” Duffy told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.
President Donald Trump has “bought into the plan,” he said.
Duffy also reiterated that the airspace was still safe.
Peter Goelz, former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, said he wasn’t sure he’d want to fly out of Newark for the next 10 days.
“We have a very safe system, but anytime it’s stressed like this, where you have controllers who are feeling under maximum pressure, it impacts safety – and people have a right to be concerned,” Goelz told CNN.
“You cannot expect humans to function at their highest level for sustained periods of time with this kind of pressure on them.”
CNN’s Lauren Mascarenhas, Rene Marsh, Zoe Sottile and Holly Yan contributed to this report.
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