Hundreds of flights canceled, planes stopped at Newark, Philadelphia due to equipment outage: FAA
A fiber-optic cable cut by a construction crew caused a massive equipment outage at air traffic control facilities in Philadelphia and New Jersey. The incident led to over 1,000 flight cancellations and thousands of delays across the Northeast United States.
Why it matters
The event highlights the vulnerability of critical national infrastructure to accidental physical damage and the cascading impact on the U.S. aviation network.
Flyers across the United States are facing massive disruptions to their travel plans on Monday after equipment outages stopped flights at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania.
More than 1,000 flights were canceled nationwide and over 6,000 were delayed on Monday, with Newark and Philadelphia hit the hardest.
The issues began when a circuit blew at a Philadelphia air traffic control facility Monday morning, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said. When the backup system went into place, officials discovered the backup line in New Jersey had been cut, Bedford said.
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