The FAA has ordered widespread ground stops and ground delays across major Northeast US airport hubs due to a major telecommunications failure. The disruption was caused by construction crews in New Jersey accidentally cutting a backup fiber optic cable, which led to a circuit failure affecting radio frequencies at the Philadelphia TRACON air traffic control facility.
Newark flight EI100 is the first confirmed Ireland-bound cancellation this evening. While flights are beginning to resume at some locations, the following hubs remain severely impacted:
- Newark Liberty International (EWR): Ground stop remains active. Significant delays and flight cancellations are ongoing, highly impacting United Airlines hub operations.
- Philadelphia International (PHL): Ground stop remains active with extensive delays and flight backlogs.
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK): Impacted by ground stops and major routing delays.
- LaGuardia (LGA): Shifted from a full ground stop to a restrictive ground delay programme.
- Teterboro (TEB): Ground stop active, experiencing some of the longest departure and arrival delays in the region.
- Boston Logan International (BOS): Facing compounding delays and volume ground constraints due to absorbing diverted traffic from the Philadelphia outage areas
FAA officials have stated that while temporary circuits are being brought online imminently, a complete physical repair of the primary fiber lines could take up to 13 hours. If you are flying into or out of the Northeast corridor today, you should immediately check your real-time flight status directly with your airline or monitor the FAA National Airspace System Status Platform.
