US airports resume operations after telecom outage disrupts thousands of flights

US airports across the Northeast began returning to normal on Monday after a telecommunications failure disrupted air traffic operations at several major airports, causing more than 1,000 flight delays and cancellations.US transportation secretary Sean Duffy said the communications lines had been repaired and operations were gradually resuming, although passengers were still expected to face delays as airlines worked through the backlog."The telecom lines have been repaired, and all airport operations in the Northeast are resuming," Duffy said.What caused the disruptionThe disruption began at around 10 am after a circuit failure at the Federal Aviation Administration's Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control facility knocked out radio and radar equipment used to manage aircraft around several airports.The failure affected New York's John F Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport, as well as Philadelphia, Teterboro and Westchester County airports.The outage meant that flights headed for some of the airports could…