US halts flights after cable cut, disrupting more than 7,000 flights
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Air travel across the United States was thrown into major disarray on Monday, September 21, after thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled, particularly at major East Coast airports. The Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, was forced to issue a ground stop, barring inbound flights from departing their origins for several hours, after the telecommunications system at an air traffic control centre failed. The system was restored by the evening. The problem began at about 09:45 local time when construction workers accidentally cut a telecommunications cable in New Jersey that the FAA was using, prompting a halt to flights bound for three major New York-area airports, as well as Philadelphia airport, Boston airport and two smaller airports, crippling aviation across the Northeast for as long as eight hours. Data from the flight-tracking website FlightAware showed that more than 7,000 flights nationwide were delayed or cancelled, including more than 1,400 in the New York area. At Newark airport, a hub for United Airlines, more than half of flights were cancelled. A further 100-plus flights were diverted to alternate airports. The incident came at a critical time, coinciding with the arrival in New York of senior representatives from around the world, including heads of state and government from about 130 countries and ministers from dozens more, for the annual high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on the X platform in the evening that the communications line had been repaired and that flights were gradually resuming, though it would still take time to clear the backlog, and he urged passengers to check their flight status closely. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford issued a statement apologising for the delays and cancellations, acknowledging it was an extremely bad moment but that aviation safety had to come first. Bedford explained that the trouble began when the primary communications circuit at the air traffic control centre serving the Philadelphia area failed, but when the system tried to switch signals to a backup fibre-optic cable, it turned out that the backup line had already been cut by construction workers, so the systems could not immediately take over from each other. The problem has sparked criticism of the fragility of the ageing US air traffic control system, even though Congress approved 12.5 billion dollars last year to upgrade the system and add air traffic controllers. Duffy stressed that Congress needs to approve a further 17.5 billion dollars to fully modernise the system, adding that a failure of this kind is unacceptable for the United States.