Equipment Outage Halts Flights at Newark & Philadelphia Airports

Hundreds of flights were canceled and thousands more delayed nationwide Monday due to an equipment outage that halted operations at Newark Liberty International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported the issues began Monday morning when a circuit failed at a Philadelphia air traffic control facility. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford stated that officials discovered a backup line in New Jersey had been cut after the primary system failed. This discovery led to the closure of Northeast airspace for at least 30 minutes for repairs.

Ground stops expanded to include New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport. While airspace reopened at JFK and LaGuardia, the Philadelphia circuit fix did not resolve the issue, leaving operations stalled at Philadelphia and Newark.

The widespread outage caused more than 600 flight cancellations and delayed an additional 4,000 flights Monday, with Newark experiencing the most severe impact.

United Airlines, which operates a hub at Newark, stated the "FAA technology outage is affecting all airlines in the Northeast." Flights to Newark were held at departure airports or diverted. United issued a travel waiver and is working to re-route passengers.