Latest news with #Flight427
Boston Globe
07-05-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Newark Airport is no longer safe. Here's why that should terrify us all
On April 28, a power surge in the radar facility serving Newark caused a The cause? A burned-out copper wire. Advertisement This wasn't a cyberattack. It wasn't sabotage. It was a failure rooted in outdated infrastructure that should have been replaced decades ago. Many of the systems still in use by the Federal Aviation Administration rely on Cold War-era technology. Some control towers still use components involving floppy disks. Meanwhile, radar facilities like the one at Newark have not been meaningfully modernized in years. As a result, one minor failure cascaded into a dangerous disruption of service. And the human toll is just beginning to reveal itself. More than Advertisement Then, on Sunday, there were 210 flight delays and 88 cancellations at Newark due to safety concerns. As one of the primary gateways to New York City and the surrounding region, The disruption sent ripples across one of the nation's busiest air corridors. Factor into this I know firsthand what happens when airline breaking points are ignored. In 1994, I represented families in the USAir Flight 427 disaster outside Pittsburgh. That crash killed all 132 people on board. It took years of investigation to uncover that a malfunction in the rudder control system caused the aircraft to roll uncontrollably into a nosedive. But just as critical as the technical failure were the ignored reports from pilots who had experienced similar anomalies in the same aircraft model. Had action been taken sooner, Flight 427 might have landed safely. Families might still be whole. Fast forward to today, and we're seeing those red flags again. Controllers are publicly warning that Newark is unsafe. Also over the weekend, Advertisement This is not a comment made lightly. These are professionals trained to remain calm in chaos. When they break rank and sound the alarm, it means the threat is both real and immediate. The airlines know it too. United Airlines, Newark's largest carrier, has suspended 35 daily flights indefinitely, citing reliability concerns linked to the radar facility. Even under normal circumstances, managing air traffic around Newark is an extraordinarily complex job. The airport sits in the middle of the most congested airspace in the United States, with LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport just miles away. Planes are stacked in tight patterns. Controllers need to coordinate closely with multiple facilities. A communications lapse here doesn't just affect Newark — it threatens the entire region. And yet the FAA continues to operate flights as if nothing happened. The FAA issued a statement assuring travelers that the outage was resolved, and that safety 'was never compromised.' Let me be clear: That's not how safety works in aviation. When air traffic control loses radar and radio contact with multiple aircraft in flight, safety is profoundly compromised. We may have collectively avoided disaster by sheer luck or pilot skill, but that doesn't mean the system held. It means we all dodged a bullet. This time . What happens next time? What happens if the next outage lasts five minutes instead of one? What if the staffing shortage means a controller misses a conflict between two planes on intersecting runways? These aren't hypotheticals. They are foreseeable events in a system already frayed. Advertisement So what can be done? First, there needs to be transparency. The FAA and airlines must level with the public. If Newark is not operating safely, travelers deserve to know. Second, the FAA needs to reduce the number of flights to match current capabilities until the radar facility is fully modernized and staffing levels return to baseline. It can't continue pretending everything is normal. It's not. Third, travelers should avoid Newark. Fly from JFK or LaGuardia. Take the train. Drive. It may be inconvenient, but inconvenience is a small price to pay for safety. For the families I represented after Flight 427, the pain never ended. They trusted that the system in place would protect them. That trust was shattered by a failure no one had the courage to fix in time. The FAA should have the courage now. It has the warnings. The question is: Will it act? Because if it doesn't, the nation may wake up one day to another headline, another crash, and another round of anguished families asking why no one listened when they had the chance. Let's not let Newark become our next aviation tragedy.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Local first responder recalls Flight 427 crash after airplane collides with helicopter in D.C.
Emergency responders are trained for all different kinds of incidents. From water rescues along the rivers to everything in between. WPXI talked to two local experts about what the first responders in D.C. might be going through including, one man who was a first responder when Flight 427 crashed in our area 30 years ago. 'It's probably the largest, most devastating scene I've ever had to attend,' said Darryl Jones. Before he was the Pittsburgh Fire Chief, Jones spent 20 years as a firefighter in Aliquippa. The night of Sept. 8, 1994 is one he'll never forget. USAir flight 427 crashed while it was trying to land at the Pittsburgh airport, killing 127 passengers and five crew members. Jones said, 'I do think about the incident that I was on and I compare them and the thing that bothers me the most is no survivors. As a first responder everything is trained to go out and save a life. " In D.C., an American Airlines flight was headed to land at the Ronald Reagan National Airport Wednesday night when a midair collision with an Army helicopter killed all 67 people aboard the two aircrafts. The crash happened over the Potomac River - which is where water rescue crews continue their efforts. Darrick Gerano with the Murrysville Medic One Dive Team says he can only imagine what divers in the nation's capitol are dealing with. 'Probably the most difficult thing would be the unknown because you can't see a lot and then once you get underwater you definitely can't see. Many different types of hazards in there in the water you know the structure of the planes, the biohazards and jet fuel,' Gerano said. Both Gerano and Jones say crews are likely working on adrenaline right now. 'When you look at something of this magnitude you have to worry about the long term hazards and a lot of these people at the end of the day they gotta go home and they're taking this home with them. It's not just something you can shut off overnight so you have to worry about the emotional stress it puts on the rescuers,' Gerano added. Jones said, 'We all have a little bit of post traumatic stress and we manage it in different ways. Psychological safety is a big issue now.' Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
