A major circuit exploded Monday at the Philadelphia facility that controls air traffic to Newark Liberty International, Teterboro and Philadelphia airports, causing widespread delays and cancellations for thousands of travelers on the East Coast. Dozens of planes were idled for hours on runways across the region as the FAA scrambled to repair the problem plaguing the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, facility, which houses a radar approach control room and an air traffic control tower. Federal Aviation Administrator Bryan Bedford said the main circuit exploded at that facility and when they tried to get the backup system up and running, they discovered the backup line had been cut at a New Jersey construction site. “That fiber break will probably take 13 hours to repair,” Bedford warned. “They told me it’s huge. In the meantime, we already have the new circuit ready to install.” Bedford said the circuit could be replaced as early as Monday afternoon. “An Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut a fiber line in New Jersey, causing a telecommunications outage and forcing the FAA to suspend flights in the Northeast,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X shortly before 3 p.m. “This incident underscores the need for additional funding to modernize aging infrastructure and prevent disruptions like this in the future,” Duffy wrote. An Amtrak spokesperson later told NBC it was a New Jersey. Transit contractor who accidentally cut the cable. NJT later said in a statement that a construction crew working between New Brunswick and North Brunswick “accidentally cut a fiber optic cable” at 9:45 a.m., but indicated they are working to determine if a Verizon crew could be to blame. Verizon said they are not to blame and blamed the NJT team. “Earlier today, New Jersey Transit construction crews cut a Verizon fiber cable that runs adjacent to a rail line in New Jersey,” the company said in a statement. “Verizon facilities were fully operational up to that point.” Initially, the FAA ordered ground stops at Newark Liberty International, Teterboro and Philadelphia airports. Ground stops were later expanded to LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International Airports in New York City, causing delays on hundreds of flights as many foreign leaders traveled to attend the United Nations General Assembly. Duffy wrote that flights were resuming at Philadelphia and LaGuardia, but not at the other affected airports. The ground stop in Newark began around 10 a.m. after ground stops in Teterboro and Philadelphia went into effect. The result was departure delays of up to 150 minutes from Newark and Philadelphia, according to the FAA website. As of 5 p.m. ET, nearly 600 flights were canceled at Newark Airport and 189 flights were canceled at Philadelphia, according to data from Flightaware.com. Hundreds of additional flights were delayed at both airports. One pilot appeared to be unaware of what was causing the delays, according to audio obtained by NBC News from ATC.com. “What’s with the ungodly takeoff lines?” a pilot asked the air traffic control tower in Philadelphia at 11:45 a.m., according to audio from ATC.com. “Equipment problems,” a controller responded. “Is this expected to continue?” the pilot asked. “No idea,” the controller said. This is one of the busiest air travel corridors in the country, and last year an equipment malfunction left a dozen planes flying blind for 90 seconds in the crowded skies of New Jersey. Duffy insisted at the time that there was never any danger of the planes colliding during that brief interruption in communications.
