Ground stops at airports in the New York City area due to an equipment outage are leading to major delays at Logan Airport in Boston.
There were more than 480 delays and over 70 cancellations at Logan as of Monday night, according to FlightAware. Some flights that were headed to the NYC area were diverted to Boston.
“We are getting a lot of diversions from impacted airports across the entire system due to ATC equipment issues which are slowing down our scheduled flights. There are also delays due to our current runway construction,” a Massport spokesperson told WBZ-TV. “We encourage passengers to check with their airline before coming to the airport.”
Delta Air Lines and JetBlue both had more than 50 flight delays each out of Boston. The average delay at Logan is 105 minutes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which said a low cloud ceiling is a contributing factor.
WBZ-TV’s helicopter saw international flights lined up on the runway at Logan, with passengers deplaning and boarding buses to the terminal for processing.
Passengers exit a plane stopped on the runway at Logan Airport.
CBS Boston
Passengers like John Brito had their flights delayed before ultimately getting canceled. “I’m just frustrated. I’m done,” said Brito.
“There’s nothing I can do about it, but what is the sense of getting upset?” said John Bauer, who was bound for Brazil with a connection in Atlanta, but it was also delayed. “I’m sure it doesn’t affect the connecting flight at all, because I’m sure that will take off without a problem. Whether we’re on it or not, that is a different question.”
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the primary communications line failed at a key FAA facility in Philadelphia. Then construction crews accidentally cut a backup fiber line in New Jersey.
“We have redundant lines. In one, a circuit went out, in the other one, a construction crew cut our cable,” Duffy said. “This is not the last time it will happen, it’s the old system, the old architecture that we work with.”
Hours later, the lines were fixed, but aviation experts say flight schedules don’t snap back that quickly.
“Anytime an airport is shut down for two hours, it takes about eight to ten hours to get back up to speed because flights are out of sequence, crews are out of schedule, and the system basically breaks down,” said CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg.
The outage affected equipment that uses radar and radios to guide planes as they approach and depart airports, according to airport officials.
Flights into and out of Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports resumed Monday night.
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