HIBAPRESS
Major airports on the East Coast of the United States experienced widespread disruption in air traffic on Monday, with hundreds of flights canceled and delayed due to a significant communication network outage caused by an error during construction work in New Jersey.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated that flight operations had partially resumed at LaGuardia Airport in New York and Philadelphia, while flights to Newark and John F. Kennedy airports remained suspended. Duffy explained that an Amtrak crew accidentally cut a fiber optic cable in New Jersey, leading to communication disruptions and prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to suspend a number of flights in the northeastern United States.
Specialized data showed that by 7 PM GMT, 168 flights had been canceled at Newark Airport and 97 others delayed, while Philadelphia Airport saw 63 flights canceled and 189 delayed. Brian Bedford, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, explained that the disruption resulted from two simultaneous problems, as a break in the main communication line was discovered, along with a malfunction in the backup fiber optic line, describing the damage to the backup line as significant.
Bedford anticipated the main system would be restarted early, while the repair of the backup fiber optic line might take about 13 hours, meaning that continued disruptions in air traffic are likely until the communication system is fully restored.
