A major air travel crisis developed in New Jersey after an important fiber optic cable serving an air traffic control centre was cut during excavation work by rail operator Amtrak, affecting thousands of flights.
Newark Airport in New Jersey and the surrounding air network faced a serious technical crisis. According to the latest reports, flight operations at eight major US airports were severely affected, resulting in more than 1,000 cancellations and 900 affected flights. Delays of up to 170 minutes were reported.
Officials said the incident occurred during excavation work being carried out by rail operator Amtrak in New Jersey. The cable supplying air traffic control was cut during the work, causing the telecommunications circuit serving Newark and the wider region to fail.
The cable outage also severely affected radio frequencies at the Philadelphia Air Traffic Control Centre, which guides landings and take-offs at major airports in the region.
Emergency orders were issued to halt flights at Newark, Philadelphia and Teterboro airports.
The disruption also seriously affected schedules at airports in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, San Diego, West Palm Beach and Dallas. Hundreds of flights were diverted to other cities.
Officials said the technical failure occurred as flights carrying international delegates attending the United Nations General Assembly were arriving in New York. The crisis increased passenger inconvenience and placed additional pressure on the air traffic system.
Reports said 1,321 flights at Newark, 1,238 at New York, 1,399 at Boston, 1,218 at Philadelphia, 773 at Washington, 230 at West Palm Beach, 800 at San Diego and 2,500 flights at Dallas were affected.
