THE Federal Aviation Administration has caused the ‘most dangerous situation’ at a major international US airport and has only so far avoided disaster due to ‘luck’, experts say.
It comes after a series of radar blackouts at a facility controlling flights in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
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The latest incident occurred in the early hours of Friday morning when the radar at the facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, went dark for 90 seconds, plunging traffic control into chaos.
Just days before, another outage saw air traffic controller’s screens and radios cut out for a minute and a half, leaving pilots stranded in the air with no information as they prepared to land.
After a string of terrifying incidents affecting Newark, serious concerns have been raised about safety.
This was compounded when five controllers revealed they are on trauma leave after losing contact with planes on a weekly basis before outages started.
Now aviation experts are hitting out at the FAA, accusing it of using the public as guinea pigs after moving almost two dozen controllers out of New Jersey to the new Philadelphia facility last year.
Two internal FAA reports from before the controllers were moved to the new site show that officials were aware of the risks with them even predicting communication and radar blackouts.
One of the documents seen by CNN, noted that such an event would be “classified as major hazard” and there would be “insufficient means to surveil aircraft”, impacting a controller’s “ability to continue to vector aircraft safely”.
Another report said there would be a “medium” risk of such incidents taking place, downplaying the chances of communication blackouts as “extremely remote” before pushing ahead with plans for the new site.
Aviation experts have said the report used “questionable maths” after saying there was a 1 in 11,000,000 chance of it happening but basing its statistics on airports that cannot be compared to Newark, according to CNN.
“It’s shocking that they thought this would work, but that it was an experiment conducted on the public, that was the worst thing of all,” Mary Schiavo, an ex-inspector general for the Department of Transport told the outlet.
She added that the reviewers looking at the safety reports prior to the Philadelphia move seemed to be “downplaying [the risk] because they didn’t think it would happen”.
In August, just weeks after the move took place, one air traffic controller said: “The fact that there was no catastrophic mid air collision is nothing short of luck,” per a document obtained by CNN.
Another said the change had “caused an extremely dangerous situation in the extremely complicated NYC area airspace”.
Meanwhile, an air traffic controller described the loss of comms as “the most dangerous situation you could have” before factoring in the other incidents that have taken place at the major travel hub.
What air traffic control changes have been announced by Sean Duffy?
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has asked for tens of billions of dollars to “fix
Here is what he announced on May 8:
- A “brand new air traffic control system” to be built by 2028
- New infrastructure such as radar, software, hardware and telecommunications networks
- Over 4,600 sites will get new high-speed network connections replacing old telecommunications lines with fiber, wireless and satellite links
- Over 25,000 new radios and 475 new voice switches will be deployed to maintain controller-pilot communications and reduce delays
- The Department Of Transportation will also replace 618 radars by 2027
- Six new air traffic control centers will be built for the first time since the 1960s
- Surface awareness initiative technology, which helps prevent close calls on the ground, will be expanded to 200 airports
- 174 new weather stations will be installed in Alaska
The FAA told the outlet that the agency “applies our standard safety risk management methodology when we implement new equipment, operations, and procedures; when we make changes to them, and when a safety issue is identified in the system.”
EMERGENCY MEETING
Following the latest outage on Friday, the FAA has been forced to announce a meeting to the Federal Register where flight restrictions for Newark Airport will be discussed.
“There was a telecommunications outage that impacted communications and radar display at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, which guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport airspace,” it said after the incident.
“The outage occurred around 3:55 a.m. on Friday, May 9, and lasted approximately 90 seconds.”
It later added that the administration was ordered to notify the Federal Register about holding a “delay reduction meeting” for Newark Airport.
The meeting will take place at the FAA headquarters in Washington DC on May 14 at 9 am.
Both parties will “discuss flight restrictions” at the airport “to reduce over scheduling and flight delays during peak hours of operation,” the FAA announced.
Since the first outage, hundreds of flights out of Newark have been delayed or canceled as the FAA curbed traffic to improve safety and chronic airport staffing shortages.
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United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has been vocal about the issues at the airport, saying that the problems have been mounting for years.
“This particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years,” he said in a statement.
“It’s now clear – and the FAA tells us – that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead.”
He previously issued a chilling warning to travelers saying the company feels “there is no other choice in order to protect our customers”.
The comments came after about 20% of Newark’s controllers walked off the job, with one controller saying “it’s not a safe situation for public flying”.
In a bid to reassure airlines and passengers, the FAA said it would be replacing dated equipment connecting the Philadelphia and New York facilities.
And on Thursday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a multi-billion-dollar overhaul plan to boost the infrastructure for air traffic control.
The secretary didn’t provide details on the plan or specific costs, but experts believed that a minimum of $18.5 billion could be necessary for the update, NPR reported.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to the FAA for comment.
What is wrong with America’s air traffic control system?
The US needs to spend billions for new radar, air traffic control facilities, telecommunications equipment.
The industry is struggling with crumbling, outdated infrastructure, huge staffing shortfalls and failing technology, according to US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
“You are starting to see cracks in the system,” Duffy said last week. “Everything – the hardware and the software – has to be redone.”
The FAA’s air traffic communications systems have been outdated for years and the agency can no longer get spare parts for many systems.
Aging FAA air traffic facilities have leaking roofs, broken elevators and heating and air conditioning systems, while ancient surveillance radar systems must soon be replaced at a cost of billions of dollars.
Obsolete buildings contain radar technology that is no longer manufactured and computers with floppy disks last seen in the 20th century.
Many of the 520 airports overseen by the FAA need new runway safety technology so controllers don’t rely on binoculars to see planes.
The FAA has said it will end a long-ridiculed, decades-old practice of air traffic controllers using paper flight strips to keep track of aircraft.
The agency is currently some 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels and nearly all control towers have staffing shortages.
Controllers are working mandatory overtime of up to 12 hours a day and six-day work weeks to cover shortages in the high-stress vocation.
The FAA said in March it planned to hire 2,000 air traffic controller trainees this year.