NEWARK: A major air traffic disruption hit the northeastern United States after a fiber-optic cable serving an air traffic control center was accidentally severed during construction work in New Jersey, officials said.
The incident affected operations at Newark Liberty International Airport and several other major airports across the country, with more than 1,000 flights canceled and about 9,000 others delayed, with some delays extending to 170 minutes.
Officials said the cable was damaged during excavation work linked to rail operator Amtrak’s construction project, disrupting telecommunications systems used by air traffic controllers in the region.
The outage severely affected radio frequencies at the Philadelphia air traffic control center, which provides guidance for takeoffs and landings at several major airports.
Emergency measures were introduced at Newark, Philadelphia and Teterboro airports following the disruption.
Flight operations were also affected at airports in Washington, Boston, San Diego, West Palm Beach and Dallas, while hundreds of flights were diverted to other airports.
The disruption came as flights carrying international delegates attending United Nations meetings were arriving in the New York area, adding to pressure on the regional aviation system.
According to officials, the disruption affected about 1,321 flights at Newark, 1,399 at Boston, 1,218 at Philadelphia, 773 at Washington, 230 at West Palm Beach, 800 at San Diego and 2,500 at Dallas.
