Inside Newark Airport’s chilling 90-second blackout

(May 7): When the computer screens shut off without warning, the room erupted in panic. First came curses, then tears.

On April 28 at about 1.27pm local time (April 28, 1.27am Malaysia), the air traffic controllers monitoring the skies above New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport came face to face with their worst-case scenario: with radar and radio contact suddenly cut, they couldn’t communicate with the dozens of aircraft coming in or out of one of the most congested airspaces in the US.

Controllers braced for tragedy and destruction that some worried they’d be helpless to prevent, according to accounts of people familiar with the events. One person described workers in the room letting out curses and frustrated cries.

Then, about 90 seconds later, the power blinked back on as abruptly as it had vanished. No one was injured and no planes had crashed. But several controllers were left visibly shaken, with some crying, said one of the people who were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter. One was suffering heart palpitations. Several had to leave their posts because the stress was too much to bear, further thinning out the ranks of an already strained command post.

United Airlines flight 1951 from Phoenix to Newark was on its approach into the airport when the radio feed relaying information from air traffic control went dead. The pilots paged for instructions and got nothing from the control tower.

As radio contact returned, a controller instructed another pilot to switch to visual navigation.

“We just lost our frequencies and radios for a minute everywhere so I think we’re just going to have to cut you loose to VFR because we’re stopping everything in case that happens again,” the controller in the Newark air traffic control centre said, according to an archive of the radio communications from LiveATC.net posted onto YouTube by VASAviation.

The harrowing episode last week was a dramatic acceleration of the downward spiral that the US air traffic control ecosystem has suffered for years. Flight delays or outright cancellations, system outages and runway closures have put the spotlight on an industry suffering from staffing shortages, outdated technology and — in the case of Newark — questionable decisions to relocate some key functions that culminated in a blackout.

“It’s not just hyperbole that you have people’s lives in your hands; you do,” said Bob Mann, a former airline executive who now runs his own consulting business R W Mann & Co. “When you can’t see the traffic to manage it, that’s a problem.”

Some air traffic controllers were given time off under a leave programme for workers who experience traumatic incidents, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said. The group confirmed that controllers in the Philadelphia facility “temporarily lost radar and communications with the aircraft under their control, unable to see, hear, or talk to them”. Those affected are allowed to take as long as 45 days to recover.

The incident and resulting reduction in staffing contributed to more than a week of flight disruptions at Newark. United Airlines Holdings Inc cut 35 daily round trips at the key hub, its biggest for international departures and a primary gateway for domestic travel. Delta Air Lines Inc also trimmed flights over the air traffic control issues.

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