GLEN RIDGE, N.J. — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the federal government had reduced the number of flights out of Newark Liberty International Airport after two major air traffic control technology outages.
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, Duffy sought to reassure Americans of the safety of flying through Newark, while acknowledging the need for significant changes.
When asked if it was still safe to fly into and out of Newark, Duffy said, “It is,” and he highlighted steps taken in response to the incidents.
“We actually have brought down the number of airplanes that come in and leave Newark because, listen, our mission is safety,” Duffy said.
“So — yeah, I hate delays. I hate cancellations. And I hate [how] families who come with little kids [are] sitting there for four hours,” he continued. “I’ve done that myself on occasion. It’s hard. But I want you to get to where you’re traveling. And if that means slowing down flights into Newark, we slow them down to make sure we can do it safely.”
For 90 seconds on April 28, controllers at a Philadelphia air traffic control center, who were responsible for monitoring air traffic in and out of the airport, lost radar and communications with the flights.
They were unable to “see, hear, or talk to them,” the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said, according to The New York Times.
A subsequent outage on Friday deepened a major backlog of cancellations and delays at Newark, which is one of the three main New York-area airports and one of the busiest in the nation.
When asked if there were other specific airports Duffy was worried about, he said he was “concerned about the whole airspace” and the prevalence of outdated technology across U.S. airports.
“Is it safe? Yes, we have redundancies, multiple redundancies in place to keep you safe when you fly. But we should also recognize we’re seeing — we’re seeing stress on an old network, and it’s time to fix it,” Duffy said.
