Newark air traffic crisis gets worse with one controller to oversee up to 180 takeoffs and landings
The safety nightmare continues at Newark Liberty International Airport, where all air traffic control will be manned by just one fully qualified person during its busiest time tonight, The Post can exclusively reveal.
One air traffic controller (ATC) and a trainee will operate every flight in and out of Newark between 6.30pm-9.30pm — despite 15 staffers being the standard requirement for a shift.
A New York-based ATC, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described the situation as 'pure insanity' and warned that the schedule shows the control tower for the airport will operate 'at bare bones' while between 168 and 180 planes are scheduled to take off and land.
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4 Newark Airport in New Jersey has a huge shortage of air control staff, and its control tower is set to be manned by just one qualified controller and a trainee on Monday night.
John McAdorey – stock.adobe.com
It comes after the New Jersey airport was initially facing a 'zero ATC event' — a term used by industry workers to describe the doomsday scenario of no one showing up — Monday afternoon until a controller on his day off agreed to come in and cover the evening shift.
'One of the controllers is canceling his day off and coming into work. But that's not going to safely cover the entire system,' the source warned The Post.
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The source said that a similar situation had occurred on Sunday when only two ATC's were on for the night shift.
'15 is the target for EWR. Anything less than half of that is rough. Safety begins to be compromised,' he said, adding that he has 'never seen anything like this' in his decades-long career.
'If you get below half of that standard, so seven, your safety begins to be compromised and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) knows that. So what they'll do is put out ground stop delays and that's what we're seeing across the country.
'But it's still just dangerous when 1-3 controllers are getting slammed.'
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The FAA and Department of Transportation (DOT) did not immediately return The Post's request for comment.
However, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy gave a press conference about Newark where he said: 'I think it is clear that the blame belongs with the last administration. Joe Biden did nothing to fix the system they knew was broke.'
4 Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has claimed the control tower problems are the fault of the previous administration.
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4 A screen displaying a huge number of delayed flights at Newark on May 9.
REUTERS
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The airspace around New York and New Jersey is considered one of the 'busiest and most complex' sectors in the nation, according to several ATCs who spoke to The Post.
'In ideal weather, with full staffing and with perfectly functioning technology, the FAA tells us that the airport can only handle 77 flights per hour,' United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a note to employees last week.
'And yet, the FAA regularly approves schedules of 80+ flights per hour almost every day between 3:00pm and 8:00 p.m.'
'This math doesn't work,' Kirby added in the note. 'Especially when there is weather, staffing issues or technology breakdowns — the airspace, taxiways, and runways get backed up and gridlock occurs.'
Newark Liberty International Airport, where United Airlines Holdings Inc. operates 68% of the airport's flights, experienced two jarring radar and communications failures in two weeks. The outages prompted the FAA to propose limiting the airport to no more than 56 total operations per hour.
4 The air control tower at Newark airport.
AFP via Getty Images
The FAA and airlines are meeting on Wednesday to discuss flight cuts at Newark Liberty International Airport.
The source claimed there is a solution to the drastic staffing shortages that have brought the airport to a standstill, caused endless flight delays and cancelations, and prompted widespread safety concerns.
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'It is because Pete Buttigieg and the union collaborated and moved the [Newark] sector from Long Island [in New York] to Philadelphia last summer in the name of 'staffing concerns',' he told The Post.
The FAA previously said the Newark Airport chaos was being exacerbated by at least ATC's who took 'trauma leave' of up to 45 days to cope with the stress of equipment failures.
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