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15 hours ago
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All of United Airline's domestic flights out of a major East Coast airport have been canceled after construction contractors accidentally severed a Verizon cable and set off a travel nightmare throughout the Northeast.
Ground stops have been in effect for Newark Liberty International (EWR), Teterboro (TEB), Philadelphia International (PHL) and John F Kennedy International (JFK), with some delays reaching seven hours.
However, United has decided to cancel all their remaining US flights to and from Newark on Monday due to the situation.
Flights departing from LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York, Boston's Logan International Airport (BOS) and Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) are also facing ground delays.
Bryan Bedford, the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), said that the 600-foot fiber cable cut occurred 'somewhere between' New Brunswick and Newark, New Jersey.
'Somebody dug it up,' Bedford told reporters, as captured on video by CBS News.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said an Amtrak crew mistakenly severed the fiber-optic line during construction, triggering the telecommunications failure and widespread flight disruptions.
'This incident underscores the need for additional funding to modernize aging infrastructure and prevent disruptions like this in the future,' Duffy wrote on social platform X.
Flight tracking data captured dozens of planes sitting on the runway in Newark, as passengers said they were stranded for hours before returning to the gates
Pictured: United Airlines' fleet at Newark Airport. The company canceled all domestic flights to and from the airport on Monday due to the cut wire (Stock Image)
The flights were halted on the day 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 FAA has ordered flights bound for EWR to remain at their departure airports because of the ongoing equipment outage.
The ground delays have been extended throughout the Northeast until at least 9pm ET.
Passengers are now facing average delays of 45 minutes to five hours, while the worst delays surged to nearly seven hours at some airports Monday afternoon, according to the FAA alerts.
Another ground stop has been issued for flights heading to JFK Airport, with affected planes being held at their departure airports until at least 6.30pm, with a moderate chance the stop will be extended.
The FAA also ordered flights bound for New Jersey's Teterboro Airport to remain at their departure points across the US and parts of Canada.
The incident demonstrated the fragility of the aging US air traffic control system, which Congress awarded $12.5 billion for upgrades last year.
Bedford said a replacement circuit had also failed but said they were resuming traffic to JFK Airport and LGA. He said it was not clear when flights might resume at airports in Philadelphia and Newark.
At Newark alone, more than 1,000 flights had been delayed or canceled. Throughout the US, there were nearly 4,000 delayed flights and 500 canceled
A ground stop in Boston, which stopped accepting flights because of spillover volume, was lifted earlier in the day.
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 some frequencies at a Philadelphia air traffic control facility that handles air traffic for the airports, Bedford said. Then authorities discovered that a backup fiber line was accidentally cut by a construction crew in New Jersey.
At Newark alone, more than 1,000 flights had been delayed or canceled. Throughout the US, there were nearly 6,000 delayed flights and 1,000 canceled.
'When it went to flip into the backup, we discovered that the backup fiber had a break, and that fiber break is probably 13 hours to repair,' Bedford said.
'It's massive, I'm told. Meanwhile, we've got the new circuit ready to install now.'
