{"id":353010,"date":"2026-09-22T01:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T01:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/353010\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T01:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T01:14:10","slug":"railroad-work-crews-cut-fiber-optic-cable-grounding-flights-across-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/353010\/","title":{"rendered":"Railroad work crews cut fiber optic cable, grounding flights across NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Air traffic into New York City’s major airports suffered heavy delays Monday<\/a> after crews working on the Northeast Corridor rail line severed a fiber optic cable linking two major air traffic control centers.<\/p>\n

Around 9:45 a.m. on Monday, contractors working for NJ Transit accidentally severed a fiber optic line while working on a rail car storage project<\/a> at a yard near the Northeast Corridor line in New Brunswick, according to a statement issued by the Garden State railroad.<\/p>\n

The severed cable appeared to have knocked out all communications between New York’s metro area air traffic control and its counterpart in Philadelphia, which controls much of northern New Jersey’s air space.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been made aware that this cable served as a back-up to a primary circuit system that failed,” an NJ Transit spokesman said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Initial reports said the work crew was from Amtrak, which owns and maintains much of the Northeast Corridor.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson at the Federal Aviation Administration referred the Daily News to a social media post<\/a> from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy who wrote, “An Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut into a fiber line in New Jersey which caused a telecom outage and forced FAA to pause flights in the Northeast.”<\/p>\n

Amtrak did not respond to a request for comment Monday.<\/p>\n

All flights into and out of the region were grounded into Monday afternoon. Shortly after 6 p.m., Duffy announced on social media that repairs to the cable had been completed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ground stops were lifted at all New York area airports by 6:30 p.m., and flights were set to resume with delays.<\/p>\n

As previously reported by the News<\/a>, flights taking off and landing at Newark and Teterboro are handled by the air traffic controllers at Philadelphia’s “terminal radar approach control” \u2014 or TRACON \u2014 who are responsible for the skies over North Jersey.<\/p>\n

The radar information they use to guide those flights, however, is routed through New York TRACON \u2014 which handles takeoff and landing control for LaGuardia and Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Previous issues with the old, copper-wire communication link between New York and Philly TRACONs knocked out flight operations in the nation’s largest metropolitan area twice last year.<\/p>\n

In a statement Monday, Verizon \u2014 which owns the fiber optic line \u2014 confirmed the damage and said repairs were ongoing.<\/p>\n

“We have a fiber cable running adjacent to an Amtrak rail line in New Jersey. Construction contractors working in the area dug up and cut our cable. Verizon’s facilities were fully functional up to that point. Verizon bears no responsibility for this incident,” a spokesperson for the telecom firm said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“We immediately deployed our technicians to the scene. We and our partners are actively working to repair the damaged cable and restore connectivity as quickly as possible.”<\/p>\n

The NJ Transit spokesman said that the work crew had been “approximately 10 feet from the utility markings” when they cut through the cable \u2014 and therefore digging in an ostensibly safe place.<\/p>\n

The fiber optic cable began carrying air traffic control data last year as part of an effort to combat the communications chaos that contributed to a weeklong meltdown at Newark last year \u2014 when communication lag on outdated copper wire caused momentary outages for air traffic controllers.<\/p>\n

It was unclear what redundancies had been built into the system, given that Monday’s incident could ground planes for the bulk of the day.<\/p>\n

On social media Duffy called for more money to apparently further update the new fiber optic line.<\/p>\n

“This incident underscores the need for additional funding to modernize aging infrastructure and prevent disruptions like this in the future,” the secretary wrote.<\/p>\n

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