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Flights resuming after equipment outage disrupts Northeast air travel: Duffy

The outage forced hundreds of cancellations and delays after a primary communications circuit failed and a backup fiber line was cut, officials said.

  • On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration issued ground stops at major Northeast airports, including Newark Liberty International Airport, JFK, and Philadelphia International Airport, after a critical equipment failure paralyzed regional air traffic.
  • Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control lost its primary circuit Monday morning; when crews switched to backup systems, they discovered a severed fiber-optic cable. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the cut to an Amtrak construction crew, though reports implicate New Jersey Transit contractors.
  • Flight-Tracking data confirms nearly 4,000 delayed flights and 500 cancellations nationwide. Newark Liberty International Airport bore the brunt with over 1,000 impacted flights, forcing pilots to divert to Pittsburgh and Detroit.
  • Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed repairs finished Monday evening, yet residual delays persisted into Tuesday as airlines repositioned displaced crews. Duffy warned "it will take some time to clear all existing delays" despite the fixes.
  • Duffy urged Congress to approve $20 billion to modernize the nation's 40-year-old air traffic control architecture, citing the incident as evidence of systemic fragility. The Modern Skies Coalition backed the plan, warning that failing to upgrade risks recurring infrastructure failures.
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The spokesman-Review broke the news in Spokane, United States on Monday, September 21, 2026.
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