Radar screens at Newark airport went black again overnight
Radar screens at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport went black again early Friday morning.
abcnews.go.com
I think this is the third time in the last few days but the article only mentions 1 previous time.
It started with old systems cutting out, leaving jets in the air trying to land (and take off) with frustrated pilots and ATC's coping with a 90 second blackout of their radar.
That was on top of understaffing problems so the remaining ATC's were juggling way more than they should've at one of the busiest airports in the States.
A lot of them went on trauma leave - they were understaffed, trying to deal with old equipment and it's like the straw that broke the camels back.
The situation remains bad even with ATC's shunted from elsewhere - because of runway construction and MORE failures from an aging system.
Then the radar failed AGAIN!
Grace of God nobody died!
Here's a bit of that article:
"Radar screens at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport went black again early Friday morning.
The outage happened at 3:55 a.m. and lasted about 90 seconds, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
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.
....
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 FAA briefly halted all departures to the airport.
Following the outage, several controllers went on medical leave, calling the experience a traumatic event. The controllers are entitled to at least 45 days away from the job and must be evaluated by a doctor before they can return to work.
...
Changes include swapping out old telecommunications for "new fiber, wireless and satellite technologies"; "installing new modern hardware and software"; replacing 618 old radars; and building six new air traffic control centers and replacing towers, the Transportation Department said.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he hopes to have the system built in the next three to four years."
