FAA Ground Stops Hit Five Northeast Airports After Circuit Failure and Backup Line Cut

NEWARK, New Jersey — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued ground stops at five Northeast airports on Monday, September 21, after the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) lost its primary communications circuit and officials found that its backup line had been cut. Newark Liberty International (EWR), Teterboro (TEB), and Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) were stopped first, around 10:00 ET, and New York-JFK and New York-LaGuardia (LGA) were added around 13:00 ET, according to NBC New York.

At 18:04 ET, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X that the telecom lines had been repaired and that operations across the Northeast were resuming. Clearing the delays would take time, he wrote.

Primary Circuit Failed, Backup Found Cut

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the primary circuit at the TRACON failed on Monday morning. When the system switched to backup, officials discovered that the fiber-optic line had been cut at a construction site in New Jersey, NBC News reported. "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."

According to NBC New York, Bedford said the circuit that failed was an older Verizon circuit, and it is due to be replaced under the air traffic control overhaul. Crews tried to replace it on Monday, but the fix did not take, the FAA said. Duffy's evening post did not say which line had been restored.

Earlier in the day, the FAA told Fox News that it had paused flights into PHL, TEB, and EWR because of "issues with some frequencies at Philadelphia TRACON," Fox Business reported. The Philadelphia facility controls traffic into and out of all three airports.

Dispute Over the Cut and the Utility Markings

Duffy's afternoon post on X blamed "an Amtrak construction crew" for cutting the fiber line. Amtrak disputed that account. The incident "occurred on New Jersey Transit property and involved a New Jersey Transit contractor," a spokesperson told NBC New York.

NJ Transit said a crew working on the Delco Lead project between New Brunswick and North Brunswick severed a fiber-optic cable at about 09:45 ET and that it had been made aware the cable served as the backup to the primary circuit that failed. Preliminary information showed the crew working about 10 feet (3m) from the utility markings, the agency said, and staff were determining "whether it was Verizon or the contractor who made the utility markings at the site."

Verizon, which owns the cut cable, said its "facilities were fully functional up to that point" and that it "bears no responsibility for this incident." The company told CNN that contractors are responsible for requesting correct markings. "Our cables were properly placed," it said.

Cancellations, Delays, and Diversions

No commercial flights landed at Newark from about 09:40 ET until just after 17:20 ET, according to Flightradar24 data cited by NBC New York. Newark had more cancellations on Monday than any other airport in the world, CNN reported, citing FlightAware. NBC News put the count at nearly 619 canceled flights at Newark and 197 at Philadelphia as of 18:00 ET.

Delays were still building after the lines were repaired. At about 18:40 ET, the FAA reported average delays of 306 mins at Newark, 212 mins at Philadelphia, and 159 mins at Teterboro, with 72 mins at JFK and 67 mins at LaGuardia, according to Fox Business.

Nationwide, FlightAware counted about 7,000 flights delayed or canceled, including 1,400 at the three major New York-area airports, Reuters reported. More than 100 flights diverted. Reuters counted arrival stops at seven airports, adding Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), which stopped accepting flights because of spillover volume, and two smaller airports in the New York region that it did not name. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) halted flights for more than an hour because of volume issues. A Logan spokesperson told CBS New York the airport was "getting a lot of diversions from impacted airports."

"The timing is absolutely horrible and I'm very sorry for the delays and cancellations," Bedford told reporters. United Airlines (UA), which has a hub at Newark, issued a travel waiver. "We know this outage is a significant disruption for our customers," the airline said.

UN General Assembly Arrivals Disrupted

The ground stops fell on the day 130 world leaders and dozens of ministers were arriving in New York for the high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, according to Reuters. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's arrival was delayed, and he would miss a previously scheduled summit, his office told CNN.

Same Facility as the 2025 Newark Outages

Philadelphia TRACON's Area C handles Newark arrivals and departures. In spring 2025 it was at the center of the telecommunications and equipment failures that disrupted Newark. The FAA's record of statements on the airport logs telecom and equipment issues on April 28, 2025, a telecommunications outage on May 9 that affected communications and radar display for about 90 seconds, and a loss of radio frequencies lasting about two seconds on May 19. The agency later capped Newark at 72 arrivals and departures an hour, an order that runs through October 24, 2026.

The radar-processing system for Newark traffic is based in New York, and telecom lines carry its data to the Philadelphia TRACON, according to the FAA. On July 3, 2025, the agency said it had moved to a new fiber network between New York and the TRACON, "with new fiber optic connections on two separate communications paths, ensuring equipment will continue to operate if one path is disrupted." The FAA statements reviewed by Airways do not say whether Monday's primary circuit and backup line were part of that network.

Duffy and Bedford cited the outage in pressing for money to replace the system, the aim of the air traffic control plan Duffy announced in May 2025. "We're pulling copper up and putting fiber down, but it's the same data architecture that we've had for 50 years," Bedford said, according to CNN. Duffy wrote that the incident "underscores the need for additional funding to modernize aging infrastructure."

What Is Still Unknown

The order of events is not settled. NJ Transit put the cut at about 09:45 ET, and Reuters reported that the disruption started when workers cut the line. Bedford described the primary circuit failing first and the break being found at switchover. Officials have not said when the primary circuit failed, or how service was restored after the replacement circuit fix did not take. NJ Transit said it would keep working with Verizon and the contractor while the circumstances are investigated.