FAA grounds planes at major airports for hours

An equipment outage has disrupted flights at several major airports in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania on Monday, prompting ground stops and delays across the region, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

“The FAA is pausing flights into Philadelphia International, Teterboro and Newark Liberty International airports due to issues with some frequencies at Philadelphia TRACON,” the FAA told Fox News in a statement earlier Monday.

The disruption later spread to additional airports. By Monday afternoon, the FAA had ground stops in place at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Teterboro Airport (TEB), while LaGuardia Airport (LGA) was operating under a ground delay.

FAA Administrator Brian Bedford said Philadelphia TRACON lost its primary circuit, and when controllers switched to the backup system, they discovered a broken fiber-optic cable.

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Officials initially hoped to restore service by installing a replacement circuit. Bedford later said the replacement circuit failed, meaning ground stops remained in place at PHL and EWR, according to Reuters.

Bedford also said flights will resume at LGA and JFK, Reuters reported.

Repairs to the damaged fiber-optic cable are expected to take about 13 hours.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters that “these are issues that, aren’t new to us.”

“We know these problems can happen. We know these cuts can happen,” Duffy said, adding that the department has been working to upgrade FAA equipment and its telecom architecture. 

“As we work through all the new equipment, all the new architecture of our telecom, which is fans, it all takes money. That’s why we have a holistic view of everything, including how we rework our telecom,” Duffy said.

Duffy said the work is being done before the department has secured all the necessary money, adding that “when we get the cash” the department will be able to hasten progress. 

“But this is not shocking,” Duffy said of the equipment outage.

The FAA could not immediately be reached by FOX Business Monday afternoon for additional comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.