Flights at Newark, JFK, LaGuardia airports resume following equipment outage, FAA says
Flights into and out of Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports resumed Monday night, following an earlier equipment outage, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The outage had and will continue to have a ripple effect on air traffic throughout the country.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said early Monday evening the telecom lines that had been damaged in an earlier incident on NJ Transit property were repaired. However, delays are expected to persist at the New York City-area airports for some time.
As of 11 p.m. on Monday, there were 393 cancellations and 1,854 delays among the three New York City-area airports and Philadelphia, officials said.
Ground stops and delays had been issued at Newark Liberty, JFK and LaGuardia earlier in the day. Included in the stops were flights to the two New York City airports from more than a dozen regions across the U.S. and Canada, including Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Miami, Toronto and Montreal.
What we know about the airport outage
Duffy said an Amtrak crew accidentally cut into a Verizon fiber line in New Jersey, causing the outage, according to a social media post. CBS News New York reached out to Amtrak, which said the incident happened on NJ Transit property.
NJ Transit then released the following statement:
"At approximately 9:45 a.m. today, a construction crew working on the Delco Lead project between New Brunswick and North Brunswick accidentally severed a fiber-optic cable while working at the site. We've been made aware that this cable served as a back-up to a primary circuit system that failed," NJ Transit said.
"Preliminary information indicates the crew was operating approximately 10 feet from the utility markings. NJ TRANSIT staff is currently on site working to determine the status of the repairs, while also determining whether it was Verizon or the contractor who made the utility markings at the site.
"We will continue to work closely with Verizon and the contractor as the circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated. We will provide additional updates as information becomes available."
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the primary circuit in Philadelphia TRACON failed. The backup line also had a break, he said.
Bedford said the cut was somewhere between New Brunswick and Newark.
Some flights that were already in the air when the ground stops went into effect were sent to other airports. A spokesperson for Boston's Logan Airport confirmed they were "getting a lot of diversions from impacted airports."
Travelers are encouraged to check with their airlines for the latest information about individual flights.
