The skies above Newark Liberty International Airport have been far from smooth sailing.  Problems started last summer, when air traffic controllers began sounding the alarm about serious safety issues.  These problems were not just minor glitches.  They were major red flags that went unheeded.  One controller even wrote that luck was the only thing preventing a mid-air collision.  This was after a communications breakdown sent multiple planes into the same area to dodge thunderstorms.

    The issues didn't stop there.  Controllers lost radar or radio service several times over the past year.  This left them unable to communicate with the planes they were tracking.  In November, one controller had to inform pilots that all frequencies and communications were down.  This was just the beginning of a series of problems that would culminate in a major meltdown.

    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) decided to move Newark's approach controllers to Philadelphia last summer.  This move was supposed to address staffing problems and air traffic congestion.  However, it seems to have done the opposite.  Within weeks, controllers started reporting serious safety issues.  They described incidents in reports filed with NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System.  These reports painted a worrying picture of controllers struggling to coordinate and communicate.

    One controller with 13 years of experience described a situation where both Long Island-based controllers and Philadelphia-based controllers routed pilots through the same area to avoid thunderstorms.  This led to an incredibly dangerous situation.  Another controller mentioned that the FAA had only provided a single, short briefing on the move.  This led to confusion and potential errors during busy periods.  A third controller wrote that multiple aircraft had entered the airspace without the Newark controllers flagging the flights.  This move has caused an extremely dangerous situation in the complicated New York City area airspace.

    Even pilots complained about the impact of the move.  One pilot described an aborted landing at Newark, saying that having controllers based in Philadelphia increased the chances of errors.  Timothy Johnson, a senior assistant professor of aviation, reviewed the reports and said they should have been a red flag.  He emphasized the importance of proximity in maintaining smooth operations.

    The FAA has been taking steps to improve the situation.  They plan to boost controller staffing and upgrade technology at the Philadelphia location.  However, some experts argue that the FAA should re-evaluate the decision to move controllers to Philadelphia in the first place.  They believe that this configuration is increasing complexity without a sufficient safety margin.

    The repeated communications problems continued into the new year.  In February, an FAA alert stated that users could expect arrival delays due to frequency and communication line issues.  Another alert about delays due to communications issues was issued in early April.  Finally, on April 28, the Newark controllers lost radar service for about 90 seconds and were unable to communicate with pilots for about a minute.  This breakdown was caused by failures in the copper wiring that transmits information from Long Island to Philadelphia.

    After the incident, at least three controllers, one supervisor, and a trainee took 45 days of mental health leave.  This led to even more significant understaffing at the Newark approach control site.  Airlines had to delay or cancel hundreds of flights over the last week.  This turned a situation that had been causing consternation in the air traffic controller community into a national headache.

    The FAA plans to add new high-bandwidth telecommunications connections from New York to Philadelphia.  They will also replace copper lines with fiber-optic technology and deploy a backup system.  However, some experts argue that these measures are not enough.  They believe that the FAA should re-evaluate the decision to move controllers to Philadelphia in the first place.  They argue that this configuration is increasing complexity without a sufficient safety margin.

Newark's Air Traffic Control: A Recipe for Disaster?

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