New audio captured the tense moment air traffic controllers lost all contact with planes approaching New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport — leaving one pilot asking, “Approach, are you there?”
The United Airlines pilot, who was en route from New Orleans, had radioed the controllers at least five times as he sought clearance to land at the busy airport — but was met with roughly 30 seconds of silence, according to the clip recorded by LiveATC.net.
“United 1951, how do you hear me?” the controller could finally be heard asking.
The pilot responded, “I got you loud and clear, United 1951.”
In another stressful moment, a controller tells a pilot flying to Newark from Charleston, South Carolina, that the “radar contact lost.”
“We lost our radar so just stay on the arrival and maintain 6000 (feet),” the worker said.
The audio emerged as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged the controllers overseeing planes at Newark had lost contact with aircraft for a brief period on April 28 — setting off a chaotic, weeklong meltdown at one of the country’s biggest airports.
“The primary communication line went down, the backup line didn’t fire, and so for 30 seconds we lost contact with air traffic,” Duffy told Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” late Monday.
“Now were planes going to crash? No. They have communication devices. … But it’s a sign that we have a frail system in place, and it has to be fixed.”
The saga resulted in thousands of delays and flight cancellations in recent days.
The Federal Aviation Administration was quick to blame the meltdown on a shortage of air traffic controllers at the airport, as well as runway construction.
United CEO Scott Kirby — the carrier which operates the most flights from Newark — said that 20% of Newark’s controllers had walked off the job in recent weeks.
“This particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it‘s now clear — and the FAA tells us — that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead,” Kirby said.
The controllers’ union said Monday that the workers did not walk off the job but took absences under the Federal Employees Compensation Act, which provides for absences for injuries or on-the-job trauma.
The FAA backed that notion, saying some controllers in Philadelphia who work Newark arrivals and departures “have taken time off to recover from the stress of multiple recent outages.”
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