Newark Liberty International Airport Madness Explained

Anadolu / Newark Liberty International Airport

If you’re thinking about flying out of Newark Liberty International Airport, you should definitely reconsider and fly out of LaGuardia or JFK.

Air traffic controllers in Philadelphia had to guide planes to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey after communications crashed. 

CNN reports that controllers couldn’t see planes on radar scopes and couldn’t communicate with pilots for at least 90 seconds, a source close to the matter told the news outlet. According to the website, faulty copper wiring is blamed for the outage.

The outage forced many air traffic controllers to take leave for trauma as a direct result of the incident, and on top of that shortage of air traffic controllers only made matters worse.

Current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy claims it was only 30 seconds and blamed New York Senator Chuck Schumer for what happened at Newark Liberty.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Per CNN:

The April 28 outage impacted information coming from radars located at a Federal Aviation Administration facility in Westbury, New York, where the air traffic controllers used to manage flights heading to Newark. Control over the airspace was transferred to Philadelphia in July. The radars are now operated using a remote line the source described as “a long extension cord.”

The outage was the result of a failure of that copper wiring that transmits information to Newark approach control, a separate source tells CNN. “There was some infrastructure breakdown related to how the information is relayed right now.”

Similar outages happened twice before, the first source notes.

Those earlier incidents were reported to the FAA safety reporting system and “adjustments were made,” which kept the systems stable until the most recent loss, they say.

Newark Liberty Is Not Safe

Travelers have endured a weeklong meltdown at the airport, resulting in hundreds of delays and cancellations.

According to one air traffic controller speaking with MSNBC correspondent Tom Costello, “it is not safe” to fly out of Newark Liberty International.

“He said, ‘It is not safe. It is not a safe situation right now for the flying public,” Costello said, referring to his conversation with the air traffic controller, which he described as “Really an incredible statement, unsolicited. He just said that to me, and separately: ‘Don’t fly into Newark. Avoid Newark at all costs.’”

As of right now, United Airlines is offering customers free ticket changes to “passengers with travel plans to or from Newark between May 6 to 17, 2025.”

But if you’re in the New York/New Jersey area, your best bet is to fly out of JFK or LaGuardia.