FAA COMMUNICATIONS FAILURE DELAYS THOUSANDS OF US FLIGHTS

Flights resumed at several airports in the north-eastern United States on Monday evening after a communications line failure disrupted air traffic control operations earlier in the day, according to US officials. The failure originated at a Federal Aviation Administration facility in Philadelphia, halting flights at Newark, LaGuardia, JFK, Philadelphia and Boston airports. Thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled as a result. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a social media post that backup lines had been repaired and that all affected airports were operating again. He added that clearing the backlog of delays would take time and advised passengers to check with their airlines for updates.

A primary communications circuit failed at the Philadelphia facility on Monday morning, prompting a switch to a backup fibre-optic line that had been severed by a railroad construction crew, officials said. Regional air traffic control centres rely on two such lines to carry radar and communications data, and the loss of both triggered the wider failure. Accounts differed over which crew was responsible: Duffy initially said an Amtrak construction crew had cut the line, but Amtrak said the work was being carried out by a New Jersey Transit crew operating between Newark and New Brunswick, New Jersey. The same Philadelphia facility was linked to disruption at Newark Liberty International Airport in spring 2025.

The disruption coincided with the publication of a Government Accountability Office report, which found that the FAA had not completed risk assessments or updated security documentation covering threats such as spoofing and jamming of the radio spectrum used by aircraft. The report prompted a senator to describe the gap as a "major threat" to national security. Investigators said the FAA also lacks a real-time system to detect such threats, meaning it can generally only investigate incidents after they have been reported. The report warned that a hacker could send fraudulent messages, including false cancellations of flight clearances, to aircraft, with the potential to cause delays and disruption.