US convenes Newark airport task force, fast-tracks telecom fix

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Source: Reuters

May 13, 2025 1:35 AM EDT Updated 8 hours ago


WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) - The Trump administration said on Monday it was convening an emergency task force and fast-tracking urgent steps to prevent additional telecom outages at the facility overseeing Newark air traffic after three incidents have shaken public confidence.

Acting Federal Aviation Administration head Chris Rocheleau said the agency was naming an emergency task force to help address telecom issues at the facility overseeing Newark Liberty Airport traffic that includes L3Harris Technologies (LHX.N), Verizon (VZ.N), and other technical experts. He pledged to be "transparent about the progress that we are making."

Officials said the FAA could experience other telecom failures. "We could see other situations like this around the country because the system is old," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a press conference. Duffy said he expects testing will be completed in two weeks after the FAA installed fiber lines to replace copper wire to boost resiliency at the air traffic control center in Philadelphia that handles Newark flights and a successful software patch. "We are going to fix Newark," Duffy said. "Our redundant lines are now working."

Duffy called the current system "a lemon" akin to a faulty used car and blamed former President Joe Biden and the prior transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, for not doing more to address telecom issues and not ensuring the reliability of telecommunications before it transferred control of Newark airspace to the Philadelphia facility last year. In response, a spokesperson for Buttigieg said: "Secretary Duffy has a tough job. But he needs to spend more time doing what the American people are paying him to do — fix problems — and less time blaming others."

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/faa-proposing-newark-flights-cuts-saying-unable-handle-current-volume-2025-05-12/