Flights halted out of Newark and Philadelphia after air traffic equipment failure

A major circuit blew at the Philadelphia facility that controls air traffic to Newark Liberty International, Teterboro and Philadelphia airports Monday — causing widespread delays and cancellations to thousands of flyers on the East Coast.

Dozens of planes were left idling on runways across the region while the FAA scrambled to repair the issue affecting Philadelphia’s Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, facility that houses both a radar approach control room and an air traffic control tower.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said a major circuit blew 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 is probably 13 hours to repair,” Bedford warned. “It’s massive, I’m told. Meanwhile, we’ve got the new circuit ready to install now.” It’s unclear how long the circuit would take to repair but Bedford said it could be repaired as early as Monday afternoon.

Following the malfunction, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered ground stops at Newark Liberty International, Teterboro and Philadelphia airports — those orders remained in effect Monday.

Later, the ground stops were expanded to both LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/sports