Air traffic at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey faced major disruption again on Friday morning after a critical radar system failed—days after a similar incident.At 3:55 am, radar coverage from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facility in Philadelphia briefly went dark for 90 seconds. This system directs flights in and out of Newark, and the sudden blackout forced the FAA to slow traffic to maintain safety. The radar outage, though brief, had a significant impact. According to FlightAware.com, flight cancellations departing Newark jumped from the low 40s to 57 shortly after the incident, the highest in the country that day. Arriving flights also saw cancellations climb to 60. Nearly 300 delays were reported at the airport.
The FAA has admitted the problem lies partly in ageing infrastructure. Some radar signal lines between Philadelphia and New York are still made of outdated copper wiring. Officials are now installing new fibre optic cables to prevent future failures. Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has rolled out a multi-billion-dollar plan to upgrade the entire national air traffic control system. The move comes after a string of crashes, including a deadly collision in January near Washington, DC, that killed 67 people.