Early Friday morning (May 9), radar screens at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey went dark for the second time in two weeks. The brief outage occurred at 3:55 a.m. ET, during a period of light air traffic. To make travelers’ woes worse, the FAA ordered a ground stop on all flights at the airport due to ongoing construction. The ground stop is set to last until 11:15 a.m. ET.
Friday’s incident follows a similar blackout on April 28, which lasted 60 to 90 seconds and raised safety concerns among air traffic controllers.
The recent outage happened as air traffic controllers were reportedly overheard telling a FedEx cargo plane that their radar screens were offline. They advised the pilots to pressure their company to address the ongoing issues at Newark. A private jet was also instructed to stay above 3,000 feet due to the uncertainty of maintaining contact during its descent…