Newark Airport Hit by Second Radar Outage

Newark Liberty International Airport experienced a significant radar and communications outage for approximately 90 seconds early Friday morning, the second such incident within two weeks. The disruption, traced to outdated telecommunications infrastructure at the Philadelphia TRACON facility, led to flight delays, cancellations, and further strained operations already affected by staffing shortages and aging technology. Following a previous outage on April 28, some air traffic controllers went on trauma leave, worsening the staffing crisis and raising concerns about workplace stress and system reliability. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and local lawmakers have called for urgent upgrades, including replacing obsolete copper lines with fiber optics and increasing controller staffing. Airlines have offered travel waivers to affected passengers, while federal proposals seek billions in funding for nationwide air traffic control system modernization. The repeated outages have intensified demands for accelerated infrastructure investment to improve safety and efficiency in the region's airspace.