Posted on 05/29/2025 11:54:03 AM PDT by DFG
A new fiber optic cable has been installed to try to fix the air traffic control issues plaguing Newark International Airport.
The new cable is already in place between Philadelphia and New York and should be ready for use by July, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.
“That was the trouble portion of the line,” Duffy said of the terrifying communication outages causing numerous flight scares and chaos.
“It’s been laid, and we’re doing some of the connections right now, and then we have to test it. I don’t want to over promise and under deliver.
“If it all goes well, we should be able to turn over this new fiber line at the start of July,” he added.
Air traffic controllers in Philadelphia have repeatedly lost contact with Newark flights, including on April 28 when crucial communications were knocked out for roughly 90 seconds.
There have been three more outages at the bustling travel hub since then, CNN reported.
Chaos has gripped the airport over the last several weeks because of air traffic controller shortages, technology glitches and runway construction.
Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration drastically cut flights to Newark Airport over the next several months while improvements are made.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Fiber optic cable? That’s entirely too modern, Secretary Duffy. What would Pete Buttigieg say! /sarc
Something Buttigieg could have had done four years ago when this stuff was already happening.
He'd say - "Fiber optic? Don't they use that for colorectal exams?"
I love how people think that dropping a piece of fiber will make everything “right.”
You can put fiber there and it will work….just as poorly as it did before.
It has as much to do with the systems on either end, and how well they work over distance. In a lot of cases, “putting in fiber” simply means a bad system will fail at a faster pace than the old one.
Not necessarily. If it was a communications circuit problem, fiber should provide much higher reliability and redundancy.
If, as FR’s Tech Experts like to blather, it was a problem with their 8 inch floppy drives, then no, it won’t help.
I have a Commodore 64 I could donate if they want to upgrade their system.
What would Pete Buttigieg say!
Well there’s your problem your pipes have wires in them.
Everybody knows the fiber optic cable runs along Amtraks northeast corridor . Some stupid gandy dancers obviously pierced it.
Mrs Pete Buttguy: Have you tried rebooting the system?
They blame it on the “copper” wires.
I spent 20+ years in the telecom business. Based on the way this was described, you would think all they needed to do was tighten down some wire connectors and the connection would be good to go.
The problem with these types of explanations is that they never address the issues in a technical way. They use terms like “glitch.”
I am assuming this was a “bulk” of data issue. My guess is that they were trying to push too much data through their old crappy modems and that was causing them delay issues. Yes, fiber would fix that. But fiber modems like that are not cheap. In the end you would have a 16 lane superhighway to send information between sites—better than the 4 land Interstate it is replacing.
I guess my point was that you could build the super highway and make the transport easy…but if the exit ramps are still offloading onto goat paths you are still going to have issues.
In my last job I used to suggest we “Get into the 20th century…now that it’s over!”
That did not go over well in budget meetings.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.