Air traffic controllers still find it difficult to communicate with the pilots: report

For a large part of this year, a multitude of technical problems at Newark International Airport stimulated concerns about the safety of leaflets. During a frightening day in April, the airport lost communication with regional planes for about 90 seconds. Shortly after, United Airlines announced that she was canceling dozens of flights outside the airport. This same month, the FAA is committed to sending new equipment and resources to the site, but shortly after, Trump’s transport secretary Sean Duffy admitted that he had changed his wife to avoid having stolen her from Newark. It was not exactly a demonstration of confidence, although Duffy later said that it was not what it looked like.

In August, the government suggested prolonging a prescription which had limited the rate of arrivals and departures at the airport, with the aim of maintaining “security while attenuating the flight delays due to the challenges of the endowment and the equipment”.

This week, a new report from the New York Times says that the situation at the airport is still … well, not great. Indeed, the site always seems to have problems. It could have a lot, in fact. Times interviewed five people with “knowledge of the air traffic control center”, which said that recent improvements had not reduced the current concerns.

The recent Newark controllers were down compared to last spring. New managers appointed after the technological problems that culminated in April and may have tried to refuse the requests of the controllers and their supervisors for a leave, an effort to apparently stimulate frequentation, but has injured the morale already faced. And despite the upgrades carried out by the FAA, some of the same equipment problems as the controllers hampered in the spring have remained. Consequently, the controllers supervising Newark traffic, most of which work in an office in Philadelphia, sometimes had trouble communicating with pilots in the air.

Yeah, it’s, uh, not good. Airports should be able to communicate with the pilots, I say. Gizmodo contacted FAA and Newark airport to comment.

In a press release shared with Times, the FAA seemed to blame the Biden administration for airport problems. “Unlike the previous administration, which has experienced a significant number of breakdowns in Newark,” said officials, “Secretary Duffy, has given priority to problems and resolved them in record time.” The government has said that the site currently has 21 certified controllers, although one of them is currently on medical leave.