Cut Fiber Line Disrupts Northeast Air Traffic

Air traffic across the Northeast faced major disruption Monday after a Philadelphia control center lost its main communications circuit and its replacement route failed too. The backup fiber cable had been damaged during construction in New Jersey, leaving the Federal Aviation Administration without the connection it expected to use during the primary failure.

The affected facility manages airspace serving Philadelphia, Newark and Teterboro. To restore service, engineers had to replace the failed main circuit, temporarily stopping services for other New York-area airports, including JFK and LaGuardia. The fiber damage stretched about 600 feet between New Brunswick and Newark, and repairs were expected to take at least 13 hours. The outage affected both radio communications and data links used for air traffic services.

Flighty recorded 163 canceled arrivals and 173 canceled departures at Newark. Philadelphia saw 73 canceled arrivals and 71 canceled departures, while JFK reported 27 canceled arrivals and 12 canceled departures. United Airlines issued a travel waiver as the disruption spread through the national airspace system. Verizon said contractors working beside an Amtrak route cut the cable and that its facilities had worked normally until the damage occurred.