In the United States, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported a second radar breakdown for Newark airport, New Jersey, in less than two weeks.
The incident raises continuous questions about the state of air traffic control in the United States, increasing pressure on the administration of President Donald Trump to combat air security.
Friday, the FAA reported that, around 3:55 am local time (07:55 GMT), an installation in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, lost its telecommunications signal for about 90 seconds, preventing it from monitoring communications and radar signals for Newark Liberty International Airport.
A recording examined by the reuters news agency captured part of the frustration in the middle of the breakdown.
“Fedex 1989, I’m going to give you here. Our glasses are again in black,” said a pilot controller for a shipping flight.
“If you care about it, contact your airline and try to get pressure to repair these things.”
It was the second time that a 90 -second breakdown was reported for Newark, a large air terminal that serves metropolitan areas like New York.
On April 28, a similar incident occurred, causing hundreds of delays and tens of diverted flights. Five air traffic controllers also took leave after the incident, using a federal law which allows them to be absent after traumatic incidents.
In the wake of Friday’s incident, the Associated Press reported that Newark’s delays and cancellations were also up, citing statistics from the Flightaware.com website.
The White House briefly approached the second breakdown during its daily briefing with journalists, promising upgrades in the coming months.
“There was a problem in the system this morning, especially at Newark Airport,” said Jouroline Leavitt press secretary to journalists.
“This problem was caused by the same telecommunications and software problems that were raised last week. Everything remained online after the brief breakdown, and there was no operational impact.”
Leavitt added that the FAA and the Ministry of Transport “would approach this technical problem tonight to prevent new breakdowns”.
While every second is important in aviation, the initiates of the industry say that air controllers and pilots have training to manage breakdowns, to minimize dangers.
“The system is wired to work very well when everything works. But the most important part is that it is ready to work when things go wrong,” said Captain Dennis Tajer of the Association of Pilots Allied to the Associated Press.
“Even when it seems frightening, know that air traffic controllers and pilots have training, and we are going.”
The last breakdown, however, has a meticulous examination of the Trump administration, which has experienced several high -level aviation misadventures since its entry into office in January.
On January 29, nine days after Trump’s second term, a collision in the middle of the air took place on the Potomac river near Washington, DC, killing everyone on board the two planes: a jet of American airline travelers and a Black Hawk military helicopter.
Trump initially suggested that diversity initiatives under his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, were to blame for the accident, although he had no evidence to support this assertion.
Later, in February, his administration was criticized for having reduced hundreds of FAA staff, as part of its repression against alleged waste in the federal government.
Critics, however, warned that air traffic control and related jobs were in sub-effective, increasing the probability of errors and dysfunctions. Some of the affected positions included inspectors for the safety of airlines and maintenance mechanisms.
The member of the US Congress, Josh Gottheimer, who represents a district of New Jersey, published a declaration earlier this week calling for an increase in the staff endowment to the FAA, supervising the problem as a question of air security.
“I ask that the Trump administration adds more air traffic controllers to cover Newark airport to immediately help reduce shortages – and pay all workers accordingly,” Gottheimer wrote.
“The main thing is that it is not a partisan problem – it is a question of public security. It is a question of repairing a system which must be fixed.”
Trump officials, on the other hand, criticized previous administrations to do too little to update existing air traffic control systems.
Earlier this week, transport secretary, Sean Duffy, announced that he would lead a modernization of these systems, including replacing copper cables with optical fibers and replacement of older radars and radios.
“The construction of this new system is a necessity of economic and national security, and the time to repair it is now,” Duffy said in his press release.
But the project will probably require the approval and financing of the congress, leaving its future in the air.
