Flights disrupted across the US Northeast due to technical problems at a
key air traffic center
[September 22, 2026]
By JOSH FUNK
Damaged communications lines at a key air traffic control facility in
Philadelphia had been repaired, allowing airports across the U.S.
Northeast to resume operations after hours of disruptions, the nation's
transportation secretary said Monday evening.
Hundreds of flights were canceled, including more than 600 into and out
of Newark Liberty International Airport, as the outage hit every major
airport in the New York City area. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy
also said in an online post that “it will take some time to clear all
existing delays” despite the repairs.
The primary communications line at the Federal Aviation Administration
facility in Philadelphia had failed earlier Monday, while the backup
fiber optic line was inadvertently severed by railroad construction
workers. The failures left controllers without radar or communications
for hours.
The outage brought commercial air traffic to a near-standstill at Newark
for much of the day, with no commercial flights landing at the airport
from about 9:40 a.m. to just after 5:20 p.m. local time, according to
flight-tracking site Flightradar24.
More than 200 flights into and out of Philadelphia International Airport
were also canceled, while disruptions hit LaGuardia and Kennedy airports
in New York. By Monday evening, flights were resuming at those airports.
Some airlines were allowing customers to change flights without charge.
The FAA advised travelers to check the status of their flights before
heading to the airport.
The outage occurred just as President Donald Trump and numerous foreign
leaders were flying into New York City for the U.N. General Assembly.
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney missed an event Monday on the
sidelines of the General Assembly because of the flight disruptions but
his office said he had arrived in New York by Monday night.
Cindy Phan said her morning flight from Newark to Minneapolis was
repeatedly delayed before she learned around 3 p.m. that it had been
canceled and rescheduled for Tuesday, requiring her to find and pay for
another night at a hotel.
“We could have had a whole day in New York,” Phan said, adding that she
wanted to get home to her “two little Chihuahua babies.”
Shannon Franke and her husband took a connecting flight from Nashville
to Chicago when they found out their final Southwest leg home to
Philadelphia was canceled. They had gone to Nashville to see the
Philadelphia Eagles beat the Tennessee Titans 24-20 on a touchdown in
the last seconds Sunday.
Stuck in Chicago, Franke said, they lucked out finding a hotel room and
decided to enjoy some deep-dish pizza.
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A traveler with a smartphone walks past an air traffic control tower
at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia on March 27,
2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
“We’re just making the best of it,” Franke said. “If the Eagles
would have lost ... it would have been so much worse.”
The technical problems stem from the same FAA facility in
Philadelphia that caused numerous disruptions at the Newark airport
last spring.
Regional control centers like these have two lines that carry radar
and communications data in and out: the primary and the backup. The
FAA said a circuit on the primary failed Monday morning, and when
the system tried to switch to the backup, workers discovered that
the fiber optic line had been cut.
Earlier in the day, Duffy said an Amtrak construction crew was to
blame. Amtrak, however, pointed to a New Jersey Transit construction
crew that was working in the area between Newark and New Brunswick,
New Jersey.
FAA administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters earlier the agency
had focused on fixing the primary connection as soon as possible by
installing a new circuit on the primary line, while also working to
repair the backup fiber optic line. Verizon said at the time that
its technicians were also working to restore service.
Bedford earlier described the fiber break as “massive,” saying it
would take several hours to repair, according to a video posted
online by a CBS reporter.
The primary circuit that failed is due to be replaced as part of a
massive overhaul of the nation’s air traffic control system.
Also Monday, the FAA began testing a new computer system that uses
AI to help predict schedule conflicts and weather issues to help air
traffic controllers reroute traffic. But that system is initially
being tested only in the Washington, D.C., area, so it did not
appear to be linked to the outages.
___
AP reporters Rio Yamat and Jessica Hill contributed to this report
from Las Vegas.
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