Posted on 05/26/2025 5:51:39 PM PDT by Rummyfan
Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday experienced its fourth communications outage in less than a month. The Federal Aviation Administration says this latest outage lasted for two seconds at the Philadelphia air traffic control center, also known as TRACON, that handles flights into and out of Newark.
The agency, which is investigating the latest outage, insists the system remains safe. But recent equipment failures, staffing shortages, and aging infrastructure have raised questions.
Randy Babbitt served as FAA administrator from 2009 to 2011 under then Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. In an interview with NJ Spotlight News, Babbitt said he is not surprised by the recent issues.
“It’s a little disappointing,” said Babbitt. “You know everybody wants to do things for less and more efficiently, until they go wrong. And then you go, well we shouldn’t have cut that much. And I think the FAA has suffered from some of that. There have been long delays in the reauthorizations and the funding, lack of recognition of staying modern. I mean a system like this; you don’t just build it and pour concrete and say it’s going to work for 10 years. No, it’s an ever-evolutionary system of technology.”
Babbitt says these issues are likely not isolated to Newark, one of the busiest air traffic areas in the world.
“It’s a big airport, a busy airport. If you have a failure there, everybody knows about it. If the airport in Athens, Georgia goes out, nobody knows about it,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at njspotlightnews.org ...
True it’s called radar
20 years ago, I dated a gal who was an air traffic controller at a major hub.
I’m a licensed private pilot. The stories she told me almost made me tear up my ticket. Even back then it was a frightening level of overwork, incompetence and archaic technologies.
It was good enough for Doolittle
It was good enough for Pappy
It was good enough for Chennault
And it’s good enough for me
(/s just in case)
Newark is a liberal bulwark of control. If the airport has outdated tech, who’s accountable for that, then?
Hint, it aint Trump or Bush II.
I had passed the ATC Test way back in early 1970’s in Chicago.
I was told my score was within top 10 people taking the test out of more than 500 people taking the test in Chicago. Good thing I chickened out and skipped the next step to join the government job. My regular job was way less stressful, but the Traffic Controller job sounded more secure. As it turned out I never lost my regular job until I decided to quit on my own.
I don’t fly. I refuse to fly. I may never fly for the remainder of my 98.6 days.
How individual airports are not responsible for their own tech in control towers confounds me. ATC may fall under the aegis of FAA, but the flying public pays fees for these grand establishments we refer to as airports and somebody fully missed the boat by making government responsible for what should be the responsibility of the organizations running each airport. IMHO.
Government should only have implemented standards, but failed there as well.
This whole affair should wrap tightly like a noose around buttheadgieg’s neck re any future political prospects, but prior transportation secretaries bear sharing the responsibility for ignoring qualified tech upgrades over the years...something government fails at 100% of the time...
...except when it comes to spying on us.
This is nothing more than yet another demonstration of the paradigm question, “Is this government operation one which can’t be performed by commercial interests?”
And has it failed?
USPS anyone??? /s
(turbocharger)
What we’re being told is a combination of deflection, misrepresentation, bullsh!t, and the truth.
Has no one every heard of Next Gen?
https://www.faa.gov/nextgen
“Through NextGen, the FAA has revamped air traffic control infrastructure for communications, navigation, surveillance, automation, and information management to increase the safety, efficiency, capacity, predictability, flexibility, and resiliency of U.S. aviation. NextGen’s scope includes airport infrastructure improvements, new air traffic technologies and procedures, and safety and security enhancements.”
The NextGen air traffic modernization program has cost the FAA over $14 billion through fiscal year 2022, and it is projected to cost the federal government and industry at least $35 billion in total by 2030. The FAA estimates that implemented NextGen programs will drive $36 billion in benefits by 2040, with projected benefits potentially reaching between $46 billion and $76 billion when considering additional programs like Data Comm and TFDM.
The FAA has been investing in new technology all along, and sure, more is needed, but the critical observer might ask what other reasons are behing this “WWII technology” crap. For example, might it be more convenient to always point the finger at the technology rather than at upper management at FAA who may have been promoted beyond their level of competency for reasons having to do with melanin or gender?
And government-educated brains...
If we hadn't gone to war on a lie we wouldn't have an infrastructure problem. That's part sarcasm, because FAA has a pathetic track record. But $$ was printed. GW was POTUS for 8 years enriching all his daddy's buddies; he bears some responsibility.
Besides, just like I noted in my other comment: Government is always keen to stay abreast of tech...when it comes to spying on US.
Yep, talk w anyone controlling military air traffic.
There have been some very useful upgrades but there is also some really old technology and , more importantly, old hardware systems still in use.
A lot of upgrades but everything has been done piecemeal so there is much to gained from tighter integration of the various systems.
Our legacy radar systems are an embarrassment but current GPS navigation is amazing.
The biggest problem is controller selection, training and staffing.
I have noticed a significant decline in controller skills and a major uptick in work load over the years. If it were not for the recent implementation of onboard traffic alert and collision avoidance systems we would be seeing a lot more mid airs.
So true.
The lowest time private flight student has better navigation and traffic monitoring system running on his iPhone than the systems on many legacy F-16s and T-38s
Oh that is a big problem too I believe.
People are driving brand-new jeep Wranglers around today, and the styling is not much different from 80 years ago.
You would think they would have a radar system and software that would present a 3D view of the airspace and traffic on the ground and automated warnings instead of having people writing down distance and headings and shuffling those little cards around plus have more then enough people to keep track of all that is happening unlike Newark airport that had 1 that is 1 person handling the hundreds of flights at night after letting a 2nd person off for the night. A 2nd person. Two people are not enough.
This AFTER the crash that killed so many!!
Motorcycles also
Surely, just look at the 'commercial interests' that have taken over the FAA lesser facilities - contract towers.
With promises of equal service, these contract towers are so understaffed that many don't open for days at a time. Why?
Because the controllers they hire are overworked and underpaid. They bail from these stressful, $30 an hour jobs
with no benefits.
Other issues like liability, oversight, and full service make the private sector ATC risible.
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