New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) has again been thrown into turbulence. Earlier, air traffic control radar screens briefly went dark—for the second time in weeks—and now the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a ground stop due to ongoing runway construction. It’s yet another confidence blow for travelers.
ABC News reports that radar systems operated by air traffic controllers at EWR experienced a brief outage around 0355ET:
Air traffic controllers could be heard telling a FedEx plane that their screens went dark and then asking the aircraft to tell their company to put pressure on to get the problem fixed.
In another transmission, a controller told an arriving private jet that the airport just had a brief radar outage and to stay at or above 3,000 feet in case the controllers couldn’t get in touch during the aircraft’s descent.
ABC noted this was the second ATC computer outage in a week:
Last week, an outage at Newark caused ATC computer screens to go dark for roughly 60 to 90 seconds and prevented controllers from talking to aircraft during that time, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the incident. As a result, the Federal Aviation Administration briefly halted all departures to the airport.
Hours later, around 1000 ET, reports hit the wires that the FAA issued a ground stop at EWR because of runway construction, staffing shortages, and equipment troubles, according to local media outlet PIX11.
The flight-tracking website FlightAware shows that EWR has about 100 flights delayed so far this morning.
On Thursday afternoon, former ABC and Fox News anchor John Stossel released a video calling Newark Airport a “disaster,” arguing that air traffic control should be taken out of the hands of the bloated federal government and handed over to private companies instead.
Newark Airport is a disaster.
Now Trump vows to upgrade the “horrible” air traffic system.
It was obsolete decades ago.
No private company would allow that
Private companies upgrade.
We should privatize air traffic control: pic.twitter.com/aS9VyPGi2f
— John Stossel (@JohnStossel) May 8, 2025
Also on Thursday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced new, “state-of-the-art” ATC systems will replace “antiquated” ones…
Why didn’t the Biden administration focus on upgrading America’s flight radars and ATC systems? They were too focused on toxic DEI and discussing how to identify a woman.
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