An all-out air travel nightmare erupted Monday as the Federal Aviation Administration ordered ground stops at major tri-state airports because of a failed circuit connecting the hubs, officials say.<\/p>\n
Newark, Teterboro and Philadelphia International were first to shut down, around 10 a.m. Five hours later, the ground stop orders remained active. Newark and Teterboro were expected to be down until at least 4:45 p.m. <\/p>\n
Around 1 p.m., JFK and LaGuardia were added to the ground stop order. Those lifted within two hours, replaced with ground delay programs. Average lingering delays were 72 minutes and 44 minutes, respectively. <\/p>\n
“Equipment outage,” meanwhile, was cited as the reason for all the ground stops. <\/p>\n
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford explained that an older Verizon circuit shared by the airports failed. <\/p>\n
When it went to switch to backup mode, crews discovered a break in that backup fiber cable, somewhere between Newark and New Brunswick. <\/p>\n
The fiber cable runs adjacent to an Amtrak rail line, and Verizon said Amtrak construction contractors cut into it. <\/p>\n
“Verizon’s facilities were fully functional up to that point. Verizon bears no responsibility for this incident,” the company said in a statement. “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.” \u00a0<\/p>\n
In an X post, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy affirmed the Amtrak connection. The agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
That fiber cable would take about 13 hours to repair, Bedford said. Instead, they are replacing the circuit.<\/p>\n
UPDATE: 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
Right now:
– Flights are resuming at LGA and PHL
– Flights into EWR, JFK, and Teterboro Airport are paused<\/p>\n
This\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/3CDnTioMv0<\/a><\/p>\n