Harrowing newly released audio provides a glimpse into the tense, panicked moment air traffic controllers at Newark Liberty International Airport lost contact with all planes on approach last Monday.
“Approach, are you there?” one pilot could be heard asking before being met by chilling radio silence from controllers. There were no incidents reported during the tense 90 seconds, all communications went down at the busy New York City metropolitan area airport.
That happened on April 28 — now, nine days later, the airport is still reeling from the incident. Air traffic controllers went on medical leave to process the trauma they experienced because of the outage, and a wealth of other factors have caused a slew of delays and cancellations at the busy airport.
That fateful day, however, all screens, communications and other technology went dark at the airport for 90 seconds. Controllers were unable to communicate with pilots or even see planes landing at the airport on radar…