May 11 (UPI) — Operations are returning to normal after a unrelated equipment issues prompted ground stops at Newark Liberty and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airports Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced.
“Technicians are working to address the problem,” the FAA said of the Newark issue.
“The FAA briefly slowed aircraft in and out of the airport while we ensured redundancies were working as designed,” the agency said on X. “Operations have returned to normal.”
As of Sunday afternoon, at least 150 flights to and from Newark were delayed and 80 were canceled. The FAA issued the ground stop Sunday morning and later downgraded the directive to a slowdown.
Separately, a “runway equipment issue” caused hundreds of flights in Atlanta to be delayed by a ground stop, and the a two-hour ground delay, which a Delta Airlines spokesperson told reporters was delayed an outage at the airport and weather.
Ongoing Newark issues
The Mother’s Day air traffic snarl at Newark appeared to originate with a communications system in Philadelphia where flights in and out of Newark are directed.
It’s the second outage of the TRACON system less than two weeks. On April 28th, the system malfunctioned which created major air traffic delays in Newark.
During last month’s TRACON outage, air traffic controllers lost contact with planes traveling to and from Newark, rendering the controllers unable to see, hear, or talk to the pilots.
Sunday’s ground stop came while Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced plans to reduce the traffic load at Newark by installing a new communications line between the busy New Jersey airport and the Philadelphia TRACON system.
“And if we don’t actually accomplish the mission that we’re announcing today, you will see Newark’s — not just in Newark — you’ll see Newarks in other parts of the country,” Duffy said during an interview on NBC News’ Meet the Press.
Duffy stressed on Sunday that it is still safe to fly in the United States and stressed that when incidents such as the one that happened in Newark Sunday do happen, air traffic controllers and pilots have backup systems and procedures in place to ensure the safety of flight crews and passengers.
“It is not ideal, by any stretch, but they — they do implement those procedures, and they stay away from each other, and they — and we vacate the airspace,” Duffy added.
Duffy said the new communications line is scheduled to be completed by the end of the summer.
