Newark Airport problems and recent crashes put focus on air traffic controller shortage and aging equipment

Chronic delays and recent cancellation at the largest airport in New Jersey highlighted the lack of air traffic monitors and the aging equipment they use, which President Donald Trump’s administration wants.

The Federal Aviation Administration is working on a short -term solution to the problems at the Newark Airport, which includes technical reforms and flights to maintain traffic while dealing with a lack of control units. Officials meet with all airlines that fly from Newark starting on Wednesday to discuss the plan.

But even before these problems, flying has already been in the spotlight since the deadly atmosphere of a passenger plane and a US Army helicopter over Washington, DC, has already collided with Washington, in January, and a series of accidents and other accidents since then. Investigations continue in these incidents, while the US Department of Transport is trying to make progress in long -term issues due to the lack of sufficient monitors of air traffic and dependence on old equipment. The US Senate session will focus on Wednesday morning on FAA’s efforts.

What happened in Newark?

Twice in the past two and a half weeks, the radar and communications systems that adopt air traffic monitors in Philadelphia who direct the planes inside and outside Newark are adopted for failure for a short period. This happened because the lines bearing the radar signal below from the other FAA facility in New York failed, and the backup system did not work immediately.

So the control units left unable to see or talk to the aircraft surrounding the New Ark Liberty International Airport for up to 90 seconds on April 28 and May 9. The lines – some of which were from old copper wires – failed for the third time on Sunday, but at that time the backup system worked and the radar remained on the Internet.

However, the first case of these stressful positions prompted from five to seven control units to obtain a 45 -day shock leave, and this increased the exacerbation of the current employee deficiency in the control facility in Philadelphia, which prompted FAA to reduce the number of flights in Newark every day.

FAA currently includes 22 Air traffic control units and five supervisors who have been appointed to Newark at the Philadelphia facility, but the agency wants to get 38 console there. 21 other training units in training there, and at least 10 of them are part of the area.

What has been done in Newark?

FAA soon confined the number of flights in Newark to between 24 and 28 expatriates and the same number of departures every hour to ensure that the remaining control units can handle them safely. Sometimes when the console’s employment is particularly meager, such as the two, FAA limits more traffic. Before the problems, it will reduce 38 or 39 trips and start every hour in Newark.

Federal Aviation Administration officials focus on meetings with all airlines that start on Wednesday on a plan to continue to reduce takeoff and landing to more than 28 each per hour until mid -June. By that time, the runway construction project should be concluded, and observers who took the shock leave will be identified. After that, the Federal Aviation Administration said it may be able to raise the maximum to 34 expatriates and 34 exits per hour.

Meanwhile, the number of flights should be cut off a day because the airport cannot deal with everyone in the schedule. For this reason, Newark has generally led the nation to cancel and delay in recent weeks. After FAA meets with airlines, you will give them two weeks to provide information in writing, so it will not be issued a decision before May 28.

The Federal Aviation Administration managed to install new optical fiber lines at Newark Airport and the other main airports in the New York – Kennedy International and Palatrea – but they are still tested and will not come online until the end of the month. Officials were able to update some computer programs last week that prevented the radar from moving to not connecting to the Internet again on Sunday when the basic line failed again.

In the long run, FAA also plans to build a new radar system in Philadelphia, so that the control units there do not have to rely on the signal that was implemented from New York anymore. But this may not be done for several months, although officials are working with contractors to accelerate this project.

Why don’t you employ more control units?

FAA is working for a long time to employ more air traffic monitors to replace retired workers and deal with growing air traffic. But it may be difficult to find good candidates for stressful positions, and it takes years to train their monitors to do this task.

Transport Minister Sean Duffy made several moves to try to rent more control units. The Federal Aviation Administration is trying to shorten the time that someone takes when someone goes to the Oclahoma City Air Force Academy and when it begins, and the agency is also trying to improve the graduation rate there by providing more support to students. Candidates who hold the highest grades in the admission exam also get a top priority.

FAA also provides bonuses to experienced control units if they choose an early retirement and continue working to help reduce this deficiency.

More high -tech simulation devices are also used in airports throughout the country, including Newark, to train air traffic monitors. The Federal Aviation Administration said on Tuesday that the control units tend to complete the training more quickly when they use a 111 -year -old simulation.

“This new simulation gives the trainees to monitor air traffic high -tech to learn, develop and practice their skills,” said Chris Roshilo, Acting Director of Acting.

What about old equipment?

The Ministry of Transport plans to demand billions and billions of dollars to pay the costs of the country’s air traffic control system to replace radar 618, install 4600 new high -speed connections and upgrade all computers control units. The exact price is not determined.

Duffy blames for former President Joe Biden for his failure to upgrade the air traffic control system, but Congress first admitted that the system was struggling to keep pace with the increasing number of flights dating back to the 1990s, and thus problems are due to decades – long before Biden or Trump’s first departments. The former Minister of Transport in Biden, Beit Boujejj, defended his efforts to upgrade some technology and expand the employment of the air traffic controller.

Some computer equipment that relied on the contracts dependent on the control units were displayed at the press conference last week on the plan, which received wide support from more than 50 groups throughout the industry. Duffy used a variety of colored metaphors to emphasize the age of equipment, saying that the gear seems to have come out of the “Apollo 13” movie collection and compared it with Volkswagen Beeet 1967.