How 90 seconds of terror contributed to Newark airport's fiasco

[Wicked Blue]

By Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Last week, amid the mounting air traffic control problems at Newark Liberty International Airport, the radar screens went blank.

The radios went out.

And for more than a minute, air traffic controllers responsible for directing big airliners safely in and out of one of the busiest airports in the country could do absolutely nothing about it.

The critical equipment failures were confirmed by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Washington, D.C.-based National Air Traffic Controllers Association, on another day that saw hundreds of cancelled and delayed flights at Newark Liberty, with no end in sight.

Union officials confirmed that on Monday, April 28, air traffic controllers in the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control center known as TRACON, which manages air traffic control in the airspace surrounding Newark Liberty, temporarily lost radar and communications with the aircraft under their control.

https://www.nj.com/news/2025/05/how-90-seconds-of-terror-contributed-to-newark-airports-fiasco.html

[surfered]

1. Yikes!

[Wicked Blue]

2. My husband just saw this and reminded me that he flew into Newark

two days before this incident.

[SheltieLover]

4. Omg! I'll never get on a plane again personally

Between Boeing's greed & fleaon. Hell no!

[JoseBalow]

3. Ya, I think I'm pretty done with air travel

No mas.

[SheltieLover]

5. Same here.

[JoseBalow]

6. Road trip!

[SheltieLover]

8. Yup. If I can't drive there, I'm not going.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. Two Things

1. My husband is flying in and out of Newark May 16 and May 27. We can't just road trip to Europe. That's not a thing.

2. I really feel *puts on tin foil hat* that this is Fed Gov fucking with New Jersey. Trying to put their thumb on the scale in a Trifecta year. It tracks with them putting Habbadabadoo on our AG and Governor. Anyone notice how all of this shit is happening in blue states?

I don't trust Duffy, Trump, Elon . . . any of them. Every last one is a sick, evil, dirt bag. Something is up.

[SheltieLover]

9. Can he use different airport?

[JustAnotherGen]

10. No

A lot of airlines have cut their flights. He has to be in Croatia on the 18th and Switzerland on the 20th. The 29th we are holding a fundraiser for our local candidates. I can't do that alone. He is trying to see if on the way back he can fly in from Rome to Toronto. Drive from there to my brother's in Rochester, spend the night, then drive down on the 28th.

[SheltieLover]

11. Flying to Toronto sounds good!

Ty for the work you are doing!