DOT Secretary blames Biden administration for air traffic control failures as Newark experiences more delays

By Pete Muntean, Alexandra Skores, Aaron Cooper, CNN

Washington (CNN) — The Biden administration is to blame for the ongoing air traffic control failures at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport, and throughout the system, Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday.

“I think it is clear that the blame belongs with the last administration,” he said in a press conference at the DOT headquarters. “Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden did nothing to fix the system that they knew was broken.”

CNN has reached out to former Transportation Secretary Buttigieg for comment.

The comments come after over two weeks of ground delays and system outages at Newark Airport, where airlines have canceled and delayed flights.

Monday afternoon flight delays at Newark averaged more than an hour and forty minutes, according to an advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Duffy said he is going to request the inspector general to open an investigation “into the failures of the last administration” and the move of controllers handling flights in and out of Newark from New York to Philadelphia to a facility now known as PHL TRACON Area C.

“There was a number of things that weren’t done in preparation for the move, which has left us in the situation in which we now have,” he said. “What I’m criticizing is the fact that I don’t believe that telecom was adequately tested.”

He told reporters President Donald recognized the issues with the air traffic control system during his first term and was going to fix them.

“He had a plan to come into the second part of his administration, because he knew what was going on, to actually fix it.” Duffy said. “As things get old, you get to the point where you’re starting to hear some rattles in your car. That’s probably the sign you bring it to the shop. The last administration was hearing the rattles, and they basically kept driving and didn’t do anything to fix that.”

Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau said the FAA has created an “emergency task force,” comprised of experts from the FAA, from L3 Harris Corporation and Verizon to make sure Newark operates safely and efficently.

Efforts to make the facility handling the flights into and out of Newark more stable has worked, Duffy said.

“On Friday night, the FAA implemented a software update to prevent future outages. The software patch was successful,” he said. “We know this because on Sunday, there was an outage… the main line went down, but the redundant line did stand up, meaning our patch, our fix, worked.”

Fiberoptic cables have also been installed and are being tested at Newark, John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, Duffy added.

In total, there have been at least four outages at PHL TRACON Area C since November, including the three in the last two weeks.

On Friday at 3:55 a.m. controllers at the facility lost radio contact and radar for about 90 seconds.

Then on Sunday, another “telecommunications issue” led to controllers stopping planes heading to Newark from taking off for about 45 minutes while the FAA said it “ensured redundancies were working as designed.”

As CNN previously reported, at least five controllers there took 45 days of trauma leave after losing radar and radio communication during the busy afternoon of April 28.

“Newark, just so you know, we’re all rooting for you for better equipment and more staffing,” a pilot radioed the approach controller Sunday, about the same time as flights headed to the airport were stopped.

“Hey man, we appreciate it, thanks,” the controller responded on the radio frequency recorded by the website LiveATC.net.

The DOT will also conduct a “delay reduction meeting” on Wednesday with all airlines with flights out of Newark Airport to work to eliminate additional problems.

The airport is not the only one dealing with equipment problems and short staffing.

Separately, Sunday, the FAA slowed air traffic into Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport due to a problem with runway equipment.

Some 1,337 flights, which made up 55% of the planes arriving and departing, were delayed, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware.

Also Sunday, FAA staffing shortages at the control tower in Austin, Texas, also led to 145 flights, nearly 20%, to be behind schedule.

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