On April 28, controllers at a Philadelphia facility managing air traffic for Newark Liberty International Airport and smaller regional airports in New Jersey suddenly lost radar and radio contact with planes in one of the busiest airspaces in the country.
On Monday, two weeks after the episode, Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, said that the radio returned “almost immediately,” while the radar took up to 90 seconds before it was operational.
A Times analysis of flight traffic data and air traffic control feed, however, reveals that controllers were struggling with communication issues for several minutes after transmissions first blacked out.
The episode resulted in multiple air traffic controllers requesting trauma leave, triggering severe flight delays at Newark that have continued for more than two weeks.
Several exchanges between pilots and controllers show how the outage played out.
Outage Begins
Air traffic recordings show that controllers at the Philadelphia facility first lost radio and radar communications for about a minute starting just before 1:27 p.m., after a controller called out to United Flight 1951, inbound from Phoenix.
The pilot of United 1951 replied to the controller’s call, but there was no answer for over a minute.
1:26:41 PM
Контролер
Гаразд, 1951 р. Об’єднаний.
1:26:45 PM
пілот
Вперед.
1:27:18 PM
пілот
Ти нас чуєш?
1:27:51 PM
Контролер
Як ти мене чув?
1:27:53 PM
пілот
Зараз я прокидаюся.
Two other planes reached out during the same period as United 1951 — a Boeing 777 inbound from Austria and headed to Newark, and a plane whose pilot called out to a controller, “Approach, are you there?” Their calls went unanswered as well.
Radio Resumes, With Unreliable Radar
From 1:27 to 1:28 p.m., radio communications between pilots and controllers resumed. But soon after, a controller was heard telling multiple aircraft about an ongoing radar outage that was preventing controllers from seeing aircraft on their radarscopes.
One of the planes affected by the radar issues was United Flight 674, a commercial passenger jet headed from Charleston to Newark.
1:27:32 PM
пілот
Союз 674, метод.
1:27:36 PM
Контролер
Радарний контакт втрачається, ми втрачаємо радар.
1:30:34 PM
Контролер
Поверніть ліворуч 30 градусів.
1:31:03 PM
пілот
Ну, наша назва – 35.
1:31:44 PM
Контролер
Я бачу. Я думаю, що наш радар може бути позаду на кілька секунд.
Once the radio started operating again, some controllers switched from directing flights along their planned paths to instead providing contingency flight instructions.
At 1:28 p.m., the pilot of Flight N16NF, a high-end private jet, was called by a controller who said, “radar contact lost.” The pilot was then told to contact a different controller on another radio frequency.
About two and a half minutes later, the new controller, whose radar did appear to be functioning, instructed the pilot to steer towards a location that would be clear of other aircraft in case the radio communications dropped again.
Flight N426CB, a six-seat private jet flying from Florida to New Jersey, was told to call a different radio frequency at Essex County Airport, known as Caldwell Airport, in northern New Jersey for navigational aid. That was in case the controllers in Philadelphia lost radio communications again.
1:27:57 PM
Контролер
Якщо з будь -якої причини ви не почуєте мене далі, ви можете розраховувати потрапити на вітер і зателефонувати на вежу Колдвелл.
1:29:19 PM
Контролер
Ви просто повинні продовжувати рухатися вперед. Вони допоможуть вам переглядати.
Це на випадок, якщо ми втрачаємо частоту.
1:29:32 PM
пілот
Гаразд, я їду до Колдвелла. Розмовляючи з вами. Доброго дня.
Minutes Later, Radar Issues Persist
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, aircraft reappeared on radarscopes within 90 seconds of the outage’s start, but analysis of air traffic control recordings suggest that the radar remained unreliable on at least some radio frequencies for several minutes after the outage began around 1:27 p.m.
At 1:32 p.m., six minutes after the radio went quiet, Flight N824TP, a small private plane, contacted the controller to request clearance to enter “Class B” airspace — the type around the busiest airports in the country. The request was denied, and the pilot was asked to contact a different radio frequency.
1:32:43 PM
пілот
Чи маю я розрив для мужності?
1:32:48 PM
Контролер
У вас немає прогалин, щоб бути сміливими. Ми втратили радар, і він не працював належним чином. …
Якщо ви хочете сміливий проміжок, ви можете зателефонувати до вежі.
1:32:59 PM
пілот
Я зачекаю, поки ти будеш чекати, поки ти частота від тебе, добре?
1:33:03 PM
Контролер
Знайдіть частоту вежі, у нас немає радіолокатора, тому я не знаю, де ви знаходитесь.
The last flight to land at Newark was at 1:44 p.m., but about half an hour after the outage began, a controller was still reporting communication problems.
“You’ll have to do that on your own navigation. Our radar and radios are unreliable at the moment,” a Philadelphia controller said to a small aircraft flying from Long Island around 1:54 p.m.
Since April 28, there has been an additional radar outage on May 9, which the F.A.A. also characterized as lasting about 90 seconds. Secretary Duffy has proposed a plan to modernize equipment in the coming months, but the shortage of trained staff members is likely to persist into next year.
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