Cable cut delays flights at major East Coast airports

Hundreds of flights were delayed across major U.S. East Coast airports Monday after construction workers accidentally cut a telecommunications cable used as part of the air traffic control system, forcing the Federal Aviation Administration to halt or slow traffic into some of the nation’s busiest airports.

The disruption hit airports in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, including John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport in New York, Newark Liberty International Airport and Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, Philadelphia International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said later Monday that the cable had been repaired and airports would resume normal operations, though delays were still expected. Earlier, the FAA had issued ground stops and delays as the outage affected the Terminal Radar Approach Control system, known as TRACON, which helps guide aircraft during takeoff and landing.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters the agency had “lost the primary circuit” at the Philadelphia TRACON, which controls air traffic into Philadelphia and airports across busy northeastern U.S. airspace. Bedford said a backup fiber line also had a break, between New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Newark. He said at the time that repairs could take up to 13 hours.

Duffy initially said workers from Amtrak, the national intercity rail operator, caused the damage. “An Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut into a fiber line in New Jersey which caused a telecom outage and forced FAA to pause flights in the Northeast,” he wrote on X.

New Jersey public transportation agency NJ Transit told CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. partner, that its construction workers had accidentally severed the line and that markers at the digging site had been wrongly placed. Verizon, which owns the cable, said in a statement reported by U.S. media that it “bears no responsibility” for the incident.

Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the three major airports serving the New York City area, was the hardest hit. Flight-tracking site FlightAware reported 267 delayed departures from Newark and 257 delayed flights bound for the airport, according to the BBC. Al Jazeera reported that, at Newark alone, more than 1,000 flights had been delayed or canceled, and that nationwide there were nearly 4,000 delayed flights and 500 cancellations.

As of 3 p.m. Eastern time, FlightAware data cited by Al Jazeera showed 31 percent of departing flights from Newark had been canceled, along with 29 percent of inbound flights. Another 17 percent of Newark departures and 17 percent of inbound flights had been delayed.

United Airlines, for which Newark is a major hub, said it would waive change fees for affected travelers. “Flights that had been destined for Newark have either been held at their departure airport or diverted to alternative airports,” the airline said in a statement to Al Jazeera. “Once the FAA outage is resolved, we will work to safely get our customers to their destinations and have issued a travel waiver to give our customers flexibility to manage their travel plans.”

The disruption came as about 130 world leaders and dozens of ministers were arriving in New York for the annual high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. The BBC reported that UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham boarded his flight before the delays began and was expected to arrive on time.

Other passengers were less fortunate. Douglas Tewnion told the BBC he had boarded a flight from Edinburgh to New York that was diverted to Boston. Two hours after the flight was due to arrive in New York, he said passengers were still “sitting on the same plane, on the tarmac at Boston with no information.” He said “everyone is in good spirits,” but added that “it’s just a pain” to face more waiting after a long flight.