Pilot warns Americans about 'disaster' airport ahead of Memorial Day Weekend
A pilot flying out of New Jersey 's Newark Airport says the experience was a complete 'disaster' and is warning Memorial Day travelers to prepare for major delays.
Peter, the first officer for a major cargo airline, shared on TikTok what's going on behind the scenes at the beleaguered airport which has already been thrown into chaos by repeated radar blackouts.
The co-pilot of a Boeing 767 cargo plane revealed on Wednesday that his flight was forced to wait to take off for nearly an hour because over two dozen planes were all using the same runway.
'Holy cow, was that a disaster!' Peter said. 'We were number 27 for takeoff, and that's for multiple reasons.'
Those reasons included two runways at Newark being closed for construction, leading to a backup that the pilot said was bigger than he'd ever seen before.
'Unbelievable. It took us 57 minutes from pushback to takeoff behind all these airplanes,' the veteran pilot said as he showed a live map of all the aircraft waiting to use this one runway at New Jersey's busiest airport.
Peter, who did not use his last name on social media, then warned Memorial Day weekend travelers that they should expect delays and even cancellations if they're flying into or out of Newark.
Transportation Security Administration officers screened more than 75,000 people at Newark security checkpoints May 22, with about 70,000 more on today.
By 5pm ET on Friday, there were already 182 delays and seven cancelled flights at Newark, which is the second-busiest airport in the New York-New Jersey area, behind only JFK Airport.
Memorial Day is one of the biggest travel weekends of the year, and the American Automobile Association (AAA) project that a record 45.1 million people will travel at least 50 miles between Thursday and Monday.
Millions will be traveling by plane, but the numbers are expected to be significantly lower out of Newark after a series of terrifying failures in the air traffic control tower.
Since April 28, there have been three power outages that left radar screens dark while air traffic controllers were directly planes in the air along the East Coast.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a statement on X, revealing the blackout was caused by a 'telecommunications outage' at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) Area C.
This control center, located 90 miles away at the Philadelphia International Airport, has been managing air traffic for Newark Airport since July 2024 because of staffing shortages in the New York-New Jersey region.
However, connection issues led to April 28's 90-second blackout, as well as two more radar outages on May 9 and May 11.
All of the incidents caused ground stops at Newark and led to hundreds of delays and cancelled flights.
After the April 28 radar blackout, officials with United Airlines claimed that more than 20 percent of Newark's tower controllers allegedly 'walked off the job.'
Officially, several of the air traffic controllers used their 'trauma leave' following the radar blackout last month.
Under the Federal Employees Compensation Act, government workers who experience work-related injuries or illnesses, including psychological trauma or stress-related conditions, are able to take up to 45 days off at full pay.
As for the trouble plaguing Newark this week, Peter said that it had nothing to do with the air traffic controllers in the tower.
'Ten out of ten, excellent job. Super, super skilled getting airplanes airborne as quickly as possible while dealing with airplanes coming in to land,' he said, adding that he still believes flying out of the airport is completely safe.
Airline executives and US transportation officials are reportedly planning to meet to work on a plan that will shift air traffic away from the New Jersey airport.
According to Bloomberg, carriers would voluntarily cut the number of flights heading to Newark for a limited period, potentially affecting millions of travelers.
The discussions for slashing service out of Newark Airport are scheduled to begin in the next few weeks.
After the first radar blackout, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a plan for sweeping upgrades to America's air traffic control system.
However, Duffy admitted the Trump Administration is racing against time to prevent a major airline tragedy.
'You're starting to see cracks in the system,' Duffy said during a press conference on May 8. 'It's our job to actually see over the horizon what the issues are and fix it before there is an incident that we will seriously regret.'
'We are on it. We are going to fix it. We are going to build a brand new system for all of you and your families and the American people,' the transportation secretary added.
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