Thousands of US flights grounded due to technical problems at major east coast airports
More than 5,600 US flights were delayed or cancelled, including 1,200 flights at the three New York-area airports
Published Tue, Sep 22, 2026 · 07:49 AM
[WASHINGTON] A failed telecommunications circuit and a severed fibre-optic cable snarled thousands of flights across the US on Monday (Sep 21) and forced a halt to incoming flights at major airports in New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
The flights were halted on the day that 130 world leaders and dozens of ministers were arriving in New York for the annual high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
The US Federal Aviation Administration halted incoming traffic on Monday at busy US east coast airports and at one point stopped incoming flights at all three major New York-area airports as well as Philadelphia and Boston and two smaller airports in the New York area.
FlightAware, a flight-tracking website, said more than 5,600 US flights were delayed or cancelled, including 1,200 flights at the three New York-area airports.
The issue also forced the diversion of more than 100 flights to other airports.
The incident demonstrated the fragility of the aging US air traffic control system, which Congress awarded US$12.5 billion for upgrades in 2025.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said an Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut into a fibre line in New Jersey which caused a telecom outage and forced FAA to pause flights in the north-east.
He said flights were resuming at New York LaGuardia but remained paused at Newark and New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport.
All arriving flights were again halted in Philadelphia after a ground stop was briefly lifted. Reagan Washington National Airport also halted flights for more than an hour because of volume issues.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said a replacement circuit had failed at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control, which was the primary communications for the centre. A ground stop at Boston, which stopped accepting flights because of spillover volume, was also lifted.
The FAA will not restart the system for incoming flights at the affected airports “until we make sure the airspace is safe,” Bedford said.
The loss of communications was tied to a failed circuit a Philadelphia air traffic control facility that handles air traffic for the airports, Bedford said. Then authorities discovered that a backup fibre line was accidentally cut by a construction crew in New Jersey.
“When it went to flip into the backup, we discovered that the backup fibre had a break, and that fibre break is probably 13 hours to repair. It’s massive, I’m told. Meanwhile, we’ve got the new circuit ready to install now,” Bedford said.
Newark is a major United Airlines hub, while Philadelphia is an American Airlines hub.
Verizon said its fibre cable running adjacent to an Amtrak rail line in New Jersey was cut and its facilities were fully functional up to that point. The company said it was working to repair the damaged cable and restore connectivity as quickly as possible.
In May 2025, the Philadelphia facility that guides air traffic in and out of Newark airport suffered a series of significant communications outages.
The FAA said last year a telecommunications outage impacted communications and radar displays at Philadelphia Tracon.
In 2025, Congress approved US$12.5 billion to address the ageing air traffic control system, and boost controller hiring following decades of complaints over airport congestion and flight delays and a series of technology issues in recent years.
Duffy said Congress needed to approve another US$17.5 billion to finish the job. “This is unacceptable in America,” Duffy said. REUTERS
