The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported a second radar outage within two weeks of airports in New Jersey.
The incident raises ongoing questions about the state of US air traffic control and raises pressure on President Donald Trump’s management to address aviation safety.
On Friday, the FAA reported that it lost its telecommunications signal for about 90 seconds at about 3:55am local time (07:55 GMT), a facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about 3:55am, blocking communications and radar signals at Newar Liberty International Airport.
The recording, reviewed by Reuters in the press, captured some of the frustration amidst the outage.
“FedEx 1989, we’re going to hand you over here. Our scope has turned black again,” the controller told the pilot for the shipping.
“If you’re concerned about this, try to contact your airline and try to put pressure on them to fix something like this.”
This was the second time a 90-second outage was reported at Newark, a major aviation terminal serving metropolitan areas like New York City.
A similar incident occurred on April 28th, with hundreds of delays and dozens of diversion flights. The five air transport controllers also took leave using federal laws that allow them to take leave after an incident and after a trauma incident.
In the wake of Friday’s incident, the Associated Press reported that delays and cancellations in Newark have also risen, citing statistics on the website flightaware.com.
The White House dealt with the second halt briefly in a daily news briefing with journalists, pledging to upgrade over the next few months.
“There was a glitch in the system this morning, especially at Newark Airport,” Executive Director Caroline Leavitt told reporters.
“The glitch was caused by the same communication and software issues last week. After a brief outage, everything came back online and there was no operational impact.”
Leavitt added that the FAA and the Department of Transport will “address this technical issue tonight to prevent further suspensions.”
While it’s important every two seconds in aviation, industry insiders say air traffic controllers and pilots are trained to handle outages to minimize the risk.
“The system is wired to work very well when everything is working. But the most important part is that you are ready to work when things go wrong,” Captain Dennis Tajer of the Allied Pilots Association told The Associated Press.
“Even if it sounds scary, know that air traffic controllers and pilots are trained. We’ll go for it.”
However, the latest suspension has stepped up scrutiny from the Trump administration, which has seen several famous aviation accidents since taking office in January.
On January 29th of Trump’s second season, nine days, an air collision took place on the Potomac River near Washington, DC, where everyone was killed on both aircraft.
Trump initially suggested that his diversity initiative under former President Joe Biden was the crash, but he did not provide evidence to demonstrate his claim.
Then in February, his administration faced criticism for cutting hundreds of FAA staff as part of a crackdown on federal government’s allegations of waste.
However, critics warned that air traffic control and related work are understaffed, increasing the likelihood of mistakes and malfunctions. The affected positions included airline safety inspectors and maintenance mechanisms.
Josh Gottimer, a member of the US Congress who represents New Jersey districts, issued a statement earlier this week calling for an increase in staffing at the FAA, framing the issue as an aviation safety issue.
“The Trump administration is requesting that the shortage be reduced immediately and pay all workers accordingly to add air traffic controllers to cover Newark airport,” writes Gottheimer.
“The bottom line is that this is not a partisan issue, it’s a public safety issue. It’s about fixing a system that needs to be fixed.”
Meanwhile, Trump officials have denounced past administrations for being too little to update existing air traffic control systems.
Earlier this week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that he would lead the modernization of these systems, including replacing optical optics for copper cables and replacing old radars and radios.
“Building this new system is an economic and national security need, and it’s time to fix it,” Duffy said in his news release.
However, the project is likely to require council approval and funding, leaving its future in the air.