Equipment issues grind air traffic to a halt in Newark and Atlanta

A United Airlines plane is photographed landing at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey in March, seen through power lines on a street. File photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

May 11 (UPI) – The Federal Aviation Administration announced that operations have returned to normal at Newark Liberty and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airports after separate equipment issues led to ground stops on Sunday.
The FAA stated that technicians are working to resolve the problem at Newark. The agency briefly slowed aircraft operations to ensure redundancies were functioning properly before returning to normal operations.
By Sunday afternoon, about 150 flights to and from Newark were delayed, with 80 cancellations. The FAA initially issued a ground stop before downgrading it to a slowdown.
In Atlanta, a runway equipment issue caused hundreds of flight delays due to a ground stop and a two-hour ground delay, attributed to an outage at the airport and weather conditions, according to a Delta Airlines spokesperson.
The recent air traffic congestion at Newark on Mother’s Day was linked to a communications system in Philadelphia that directs flights to and from Newark. This is the second outage of the TRACON system in less than two weeks, with the previous malfunction on April 28 causing significant air traffic delays.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced plans to alleviate traffic at Newark by installing a new communications line between the airport and the Philadelphia TRACON system. He emphasized the importance of maintaining safety in the skies, highlighting backup systems and procedures in place for air traffic controllers and pilots during incidents like the one at Newark.
Duffy mentioned that the new communications line is expected to be operational by the end of the summer.