BBC News
Jake Lapham
05 May 2025
Air traffic controllers at Newark Liberty International Airport briefly lost communications with planes under their control, "unable to see, hear, or talk to them" last week, officials say.
The 28 April incident led to multiple employees going on trauma leave, contributing to hundreds of delayed flights.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Monday that contact with air traffic was lost for "30 seconds", but it did not mean that the planes were going to crash.
"The primary communication line went down, the backup line didn't fire, and so for 30 seconds we lost contact with air traffic," Duffy told Fox News
"Now were planes going to crash? No. They have communication devices. ... But it's a sign that we have a frail system in place, and it has to be fixed."
Read on: Newark air traffic controllers briefly lost contact with planes, union says - BBC News
