(TNND) — An equipment outage tied to a severed fiber-optic line disrupted flights at major Northeast airports Monday, delaying hundreds of flights and affecting thousands of travelers.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued ground stops at Newark Liberty, Teterboro, Philadelphia International, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports because of issues at Philadelphia TRACON, an FAA facility that uses radar and radio communications to guide aircraft arriving at and departing from airports across the region.
The disruption comes as roughly 130 world leaders and dozens of ministers arrive in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told Reuters that a construction crew accidentally cut a backup fiber-optic line in New Jersey.
Bedford said a replacement circuit was expected to come online imminently, but repairs to the backup line could take about 13 more hours.
More than 600 flights at Newark and Philadelphia had been delayed by early afternoon, with diversions also reported, according to FlightAware.
As of the FAA’s latest Newark status update, inbound flights were still being held until at least 2:45 p.m. ET, though airborne arrival delays had eased to 15 minutes or less.