Critical equipment failures at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey have caused air traffic controllers to lose contact with planes in three separate incidents over the past several weeks, causing hundreds of flight delays and cancellations and leaving passengers on edge.
Issues leading to the communication blackouts include prolonged staffing shortages, aging technology and infrastructure, and the closure of one of Newark’s busiest runways.
Top government officials have responded quickly.
At a Cabinet meeting just days after the first outage, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stressed the urgency of building “a brand new system.”
If the nation’s aging air traffic control infrastructure—including technology that “looks like it’s out of a 1980s movie”—is not addressed, Duffy warned, “people will lose their lives.”…