Is it safe to fly to Newark Liberty International Airport in the wake of recent outages? Officials say it is

Yahoo

13-05-2025

Several equipment outages over the past two weeks at the Philadelphia-based air traffic control center that guides planes to and from Newark Liberty International Airport have raised concerns on how safe it is to fly at one of the nation's busiest airports.
The outages — with two in the past week — come as anxiety around flying has spiked amid an already tumultuous year with a deadly collision and several close calls.
On Sunday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration said it implemented a ground stop for flights heading to Newark because of a 'telecommunications issue' affecting controllers at Philadelphia TRACON Area C. The ground stop lasted about 45 minutes, according to FAA air traffic advisories. In this case, the transportation department says a backup system kicked in.
Another 90-second-long radar and radio outage happened early Friday morning at the TRACON. Both incidents follow an outage at the same control center last month during the busy afternoon of April 28, which resulted in five air traffic controllers taking trauma leave, triggering more than a thousand canceled flights at the airport.
And flights arriving and departing Newark late Monday night were being handled by as few as three air traffic controllers.
Should passengers be concerned following the outages affecting Newark?
'I can tell you, uncategorically, that the travel into Newark today is safe,' acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau said Monday at a news conference.
Air traffic controllers tell CNN the recent outages put airline workers and passengers at risk, with one describing the loss of communications alone as 'the most dangerous situation you could have.'
'I've never seen anything like this,' said one Newark approach controller who has worked in air traffic control for more than 20 years and requested to remain anonymous because he is a current employee. 'We're playing Russian roulette.'
The outages are the latest in a turbulent year for flying, following the deadly midair collision over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, a Medevac jet crash in Philadelphia and a regional airline crash off the coast of Nome, Alaska, that killed 10 people.
Those events come on the heels of deadly Jeju Air and Azerbaijan Airlines crashes in December 2024 and about a year after an alarming Boeing door panel blowout in the United States and a fiery runway collision in Japan.
In 2023, a string of near-collisions at US airports spurred the creation of an independent safety review team.
Dennis Tajer, a captain and spokesperson for Allied Pilots Association, the union representing American Airlines' pilots, said professional pilots 'don't train for everything to go well.'
If pilots lose radio contact, there are at least two radios on airliners, and air traffic control still has several frequencies should one go out, Tajer said. There's even a 'guard frequency,' should pilots require an emergency frequency that is heavily monitored.
'The bottom line is, we, by regulation, have a procedure for this by training,' he said. 'We are experts in the use of and we have additional equipment, such as additional radios, additional frequencies to at least make contact and speak with other aircraft.'
The traffic collision avoidance system, or TCAS, is also available on board, to identify other planes that might be dangerously close and keep them apart, Tajer added.
Even accounting for serious accidents, air travel remains 'the safest mode of transportation,' Anthony Brickhouse, a US-based aviation safety expert, told CNN in March.
Should the tower not be able to broadcast, but can see the aircraft, there are also lights that can be flashed to alert pilots when to land or when to hold off, he said.
'Statistically speaking, you're safer in your flight than you were driving in your car to the airport,' said Brickhouse, who has decades of experience in aerospace engineering, aviation safety and accident investigation.
Reports analyzed by CNN from the National Transportation Safety Board show the number of accident investigations is down for the first quarter of 2025. The NTSB led 171 civil aviation investigations from January to March 2025, which include commercial, general, rotorcraft and specialized aircraft.
During the same time frame last year, there were 185 investigations. And the first three months of 2010 to 2019 averaged 215 investigations.
'I think this year is bad, even more, other than (Reagan National Airport), because of all the things that have come to light,' said CNN transportation analyst Mary Schiavo.
'Without the NTSB, would we have ever known about the 15,000 near misses,' she told CNN in April, referring to the 15,214 'near miss events' the board uncovered from 2021 and 2024, where aircraft were within one nautical mile of colliding, with a vertical separation of less than 400 feet at Reagan National Airport.
'That's shocking - we wouldn't have known about that,' she added.
A number of issues plague America's aviation system including inconsistent funding, outdated technology and short-staffed facilities.
Newark has been impacted by all three factors, and the chaos has been compounded by the closure of the airport's busiest runway for 'rehabilitation work.'
The FAA confirmed that 'at least three' air traffic controllers were working in the Newark approach control facility Monday night. At the busiest times of the day, the number of controllers could be as high as 14.
An FAA spokesperson underscored to CNN that 14 was a staffing maximum and there had not been that many controllers working during a shift for years due to the nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers.
Despite these obstacles, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby tells CNN flying is still safe at Newark — and nationwide — because airlines are scaling back the amount of flights departing day by day.
'What happens when there are staffing shortages or technology outages – we train for those. But really what we do is we slow down the airline,' Kirby added. 'We have fewer departures at every airport, so that we maintain the margin of safety everywhere that we fly.'
Kirby delivered a similar message Monday in an email addressed to MileagePlus members who 'live near' or 'have an upcoming trip that includes' the airline's hub at Newark.
'The truth is that all the flights in and out of (Newark) are absolutely safe,' Kirby said. 'When there are (Federal Aviation Administration) issues, such as technology outages or staffing shortages, the FAA requires all airlines to fly fewer aircraft to maintain the highest levels of safety.'
The email includes a link to a video highlighting the number of safety protocols already in place to protect passengers, such as back-up radar services and 'advanced safety technology' that helps pilots see other aircraft around them.
But those booking flights for summer vacation should avoid flights through Newark, according to CNN analyst and former FAA safety inspector David Soucie, who notes that nearby airports could experience delays due to reduced traffic at Newark.
'Until we see a reliable, repetitive nature of the flights and without delays at that airport, I would avoid it if I can,' Soucie added.
Summer travel is expected to be 'dreadful,' according to Peter Goelz, a CNN aviation analyst and former managing director of the NTSB. 'Particularly around the high-volume holidays of the Fourth of July and Labor Day,' he said.
While a reduction in the overall number of flights could mean weeks, if not months, of misery for travelers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said this approach is one way airlines can maintain safety during the summertime rush.
'Our mission is safety, and so I hate delays. I hate cancellations, and I hate families who come with little kids that are sitting there for four hours,' Duffy said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'But I want you to get to where you're traveling, and if that means slowing down flights into Newark, we slow them down to make sure we can do it safely.'
Duffy last week announced plans for a 'delay reduction meeting' in which airlines – brought together by the FAA – collaborate to reduce delays. The meeting is set for Wednesday according to an FAA statement.
These talks have to 'start with the FAA,' Soucie told CNN Sunday. 'We can't rely on the air carriers to say, 'Here's how much we think you can handle.''
'That's the FAA's job,' Soucie added.
On Thursday, the US Department of Transportation announced a three-year-plan to build a 'brand-new air traffic control system,' involving critical upgrades of communications, surveillance, automation and facilities. By 2028, more than 4,600 sites will get new high-speed network connections replacing antiqued telecommunications lines with fiber, wireless and satellite links, the department said.
'What you saw in Newark, you will see variations of that through the airspace in the coming years, unless we undertake this mission,' Duffy has told CNN.
The FAA also plans to add three new 'high-bandwidth telecommunications connections' from New York to Philadelphia, replace copper lines with fiber-optic technology, and deploy a backup system to provide more speed and reliability.
Duffy said the ongoing air traffic control failures began with the Biden administration and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
'I think it is clear that the blame belongs with the last administration,' Duffy said during a news conference at the DOT headquarters Monday. 'Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden did nothing to fix the system that they knew was broken.'
Chris Meagher, a Buttigieg adviser, said Duffy 'needs to spend more time doing what the American people are paying him to do — fix problems — and less time blaming others.'
Duffy said he will ask 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 a New York facility to Philadelphia TRACON Area C.
Tajer called the Newark's disruptions the 'volcano that's erupting right now,' but there are other volcanoes in the air travel system.
'We've got to make sure that we bring them to an inactive state by investing in these modernizations of technology,' he said. 'When it comes to safety, we got your back. We don't fly without that confidence.'
On Sunday, a pilot radioed the approach controller, about the same time as flights headed to Newark were halted by the ground stop, according to radio frequency recorded by the website LiveATC.net.
'Newark, just so you know, we're all rooting for you, for better equipment and more staffing.'