Radar failures, in-flight chaos: What happened in Newark?

Newark airport was once again hit by a serious radar failure, similar to the one that occurred the previous week, plunging several air traffic controllers into a state of severe distress and causing work stoppages, delays and disruptions at Newark airport.

Even more worrying, this new failure could have led to incidents with potentially catastrophic consequences for aircraft operating in the vicinity of the airport.

According to the New York Times, a second incident occurred last Thursday night, at around 4am, when the radar, as on the previous occasion, stopped working completely for around 90 seconds.

According to the FAA, cited by ABC News, the airport suffered a “Telecommunications outage that impacted communications and radar display at Philadelphia TRACON Area C”.

This second incident forced the FAA to temporarily suspend all departures to the airport, as controllers were no longer able to communicate with aircraft during the outage.

Transport Secretary Sean Duffy this week announced the deployment of a new “state-of-the-art” air traffic control system to replace the current infrastructure, which he described as “antiquated”. However, the system is not expected to come on for another three to four years, raising serious concerns among air traffic controllers, especially as the Trump administration, backed by Elon Musk and the DOGE movement, has imposed major budget cuts on the FAA.

These incidents rekindle deep concerns about aviation safety in the United States, while several major disasters have marked the start of Trump’s term in office. These include: the deadly collision on January 29 between a PSA Airlines regional jet and a military helicopter over the Potomac, which left 67 dead; the crash of a medical jet in Philadelphia on January 31, causing eight fatalities; the crash of a Bering Air flight in Alaska on February 6, with ten fatalities; and the collision on the tarmac of Scottsdale airport, Arizona, on February 10, with one fatality.