New Ark Liberty Airport, one of the busiest airports in the country, experienced its fourth air traffic connection in three weeks on Tuesday, among the concerns of aging systems and a shortage of air control staff.
FAA said a two -second radio frequency discontinuity occurred at 11:35 am on Tuesday, affecting the Philadelphia tracheon facilities that affect Newc Air Traffic Management.
FAA said all the planes were safely separated, operations are natural and research is underway.
But this is the last experience of trauma for air traffic controllers in recent weeks due to problems with the signal lines of New York’s FAA facility, including obsolete technology, copper wires and more.
These crashes have left air traffic controllers in Philadelphia that are unable to see or communicate with aircraft surrounding New Ark up to 90 seconds on April 28 and May 9. A third accident occurred on May 11, but the backup systems were working at the time.
What happens?
Newc Airport has experienced another interruption:
- April 28: A 90 -second radar and radio cuts led to more than a thousand delays in flight and cancellation throughout the country, with five controllers taking leave.
- May 9: Disrupted another 90 seconds of communications and radar displays.
- May 11: The 45 -minute defeat of the equipment resulted in the land stopping at the airport
What is really going on?
The country’s air safety system uses perennial technology, including obsolete copper wires, which can easily fail, especially when drowning. This is the problem that Niram Airport has been facing last year since its pole transfer from Long Island to Philadelphia last year.
“We warned FAA that if the infrastructure and equipment were not expanded there, the system would be affected, but they would not listen,” said an anonymous airport airport controller. Time
Instead, officials have used underground wiring to redirect data from Long Island to Philadelphia and overshadow it.
The problems of technology are extremely severe, officials have taken shocking steps to maintain it.
“We are trying to buy replacement parts in eBay,” said Sean Dofi, the Transport Secretary, Sean Duffy said in May.
“Sometimes, we can’t even buy it in eBay, so we are trying to use 3D printing for handicraft replacement parts for the system we use,” he said.
However, employee issues are a major problem among accidents.
Like most air towers across the country, New Ark Airport is short.
Currently, only 22 completely valid controllers and five supervisors are dedicated to the area, much lower than the FAA 38 target. The other 21 are in education and have 10 to some extent.
This means that the controllers need to work more or change at the last moment, all while managing the widespread invasion of aircraft. The airport airport controller of the New Ark Airport explained how stressful the environment is now and can be devastating when discontinued.
“Being in control without any of our signals is like trying to deceive mines without a mines trace,” the air TimeHuman
“During 90 -second shutdowns, anything can happen. In the past, I have left the planes and then immediately convert the wrong way to the airline above Laguardia Airport. A plane can also jump from 2000ft to 4500 feet at that time, which is very dangerous in our airspace.
April 28 was so stressful that five air traffic controllers were forced to leave 45 days of trauma leave and caused a shortage of existing personnel.
The more it happens, the more controllers need work stress, meaning that fewer people will be available.
The air traffic controller said, “The shortage of employees is just getting worse.” “More than dozens of employees have been told that they can return to Long Island’s main traffic control office next summer, while three are soon retired. I am concerned that we should import controllers from the country’s silent areas that are not eligible to handle our high air traffic volume.”
How can FAA fix this issue?
Simply, FAA needs to update older technology and motivate new air traffic controllers to solve current problems and prevent future.
Duffy says air traffic control problems in New Ark will probably continue until the summer.
The FAA has temporarily restricted arrival in the Newarak airport due to its equipment and construction on the runway. The hat will only continue until June 15, after which as part of a wider effort to reduce delays and cancellation, it will increase to 34 hm by October 25.
FAA also replaces obsolete copper wires with new fiber optic data lines between Philadelphia and New York facilities to improve the reliability of radar signal.
Duffy said the renovation of the traffic control system and equipping controllers with up -to -date technology will be “tens of billions of dollars”.
The airport airport controller of the Newarak Airport said what FAA wants to do is “dangerous” and puts the controllers “in a terrible position”.
“None of us want to be responsible for killing hundreds,” the controller said.
Ariana Bio has been involved in this report
