Black screens, silent radios and near misses: Air traffic control outages are not isolated to Newark

In Tampa in 2023, one veteran air traffic controller described losing all contact with pilots as two planes, including a commercial passenger flight, narrowly missed each other after converging on a clear “collision course.” In another incident, an Indiana-based air traffic controller said they couldn’t talk with a plane trying to make an emergency landing after a door blew off – a failure that “literally put someone’s life in danger,” according to the 2022 report.

A CNN review found more than 40 reports of radar and radio problems at dozens of facilities nationwide that were filed to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System since 2022 – painting an alarming picture of an aging system that goes far beyond Newark.

The widespread nature of these outages is echoed by the Federal Aviation Administration’s own warnings. Nearly every other day last year, the FAA published at least one air traffic advisory that mentioned a radar, radio, or frequency being out of service or facing “issues,” according to a CNN analysis of tens of thousands of public alerts and daily airspace operations plans.

“The flying public should not have to think about that when they get on an airplane, whether the equipment is going to work,” said Dave Riley, who worked as an air traffic controller for more than 30 years and said the reports identified by CNN were troubling. “There are clearly issues of concern that need to be looked at.”

Most of the FAA advisories are sparse on additional details, so it’s unclear how serious the problems were — although some led to ground stops or delays at various airports. Dozens of alerts specifically mention the problems being caused by “equipment / outage.”

The FAA did not comment on specific safety reports and did not say whether it had investigated the incidents identified by CNN or taken any action to make improvements at those locations. The agency noted that there are more than 74,000 pieces of equipment in its system and said that all air traffic control facilities have contingency plans that include built-in redundancies, backups, and procedures in the case of equipment failures, weather, or other unplanned events. But it also acknowledged shortcomings.

“Our system is outdated and showing its age,” the FAA said in its statement. “When equipment issues occur, the FAA will ensure safety by slowing down air traffic at an airport.”

Margaret Wallace, an assistant professor of air traffic control at Florida Institute of Technology and a former air traffic controller for the Air Force, said that in most cases, the outages flagged by the FAA likely caused no serious danger because of back-ups. But she said that much of the decades-old air traffic control technology, including the back-ups intended to prevent disaster, are in desperate need of overhaul.

“I first started controlling in 1991, and we are using the same communication equipment now. Since then I’ve gotten a cell phone, which has been updated multiple times,” she said. “These systems are overused and way too old to handle the capacity they need to.”

Other experts said that any level of equipment failure can leave controllers and pilots distracted, stressed and potentially less effective.

“When radio equipment or communication lines are subpar, a controller’s workload increases dramatically,” said Aaron Whittle, a former air traffic controller for the Air Force and a professional practice assistant professor in the aviation technology department at Utah State University. “Instead of focusing on managing aircraft, the controller ends up troubleshooting radios, which creates a dangerous distraction. While experienced controllers may handle this smoothly, it still poses a real safety risk.”

 

‘It’s going to get someone killed’

The country’s skies are overseen by more than 10,000 air traffic controllers – both in airport towers and in regional facilities – who monitor planes crossing their airspace and ensure smooth landings and takeoffs. Being able to talk to and see aircraft is the most crucial part of their jobs.

But experts and controllers have long warned that the patchwork of radios and radars connecting the network needs urgent upgrades.

Anonymized safety reports submitted in recent years to the NASA database suggest controllers, pilots and passengers have at times faced serious risks as a result of the infrastructure’s failures — including situations where controllers say even the back-up systems were not working properly.

The veteran air traffic controller from Tampa, for example, recounted how a commercial airliner and another aircraft were speeding toward one another at the same altitude when the controller heard the all-too-common sound of their radio frequency “dying.” Their attempt to reach the pilot of the passenger plane on back-up frequencies also failed, as did calls to other planes to try to reach the pilot, according to the report.

The controller described asking colleagues at another facility to tell the other plane to turn out of the way. But their frequency wasn’t working either. So the controller “frantically” tried to contact the passenger plane once again — reaching the pilot on the third try and directing them to turn the aircraft in time to miss a collision, according to the report.

In the 2022 incident where a door flew off of an aircraft, meanwhile, the controller wrote that they only found out the pilot had managed to complete an emergency landing after the controller’s supervisor called the airport manager.

Reports like these don’t include exact identifying details about flights or dates of incidents, and the contents have not been verified by investigators. This voluntary-reporting program – a partnership between the FAA and NASA – was set up as a way for pilots, air traffic controllers and others in the aviation industry to flag potential problems. Each incident report is reviewed by a team of safety analysts who are tasked with alerting the FAA of any hazards. The FAA states in a safety manual that the database is intended “to ensure the safest possible system” and to identify safety threats – though the agency did not comment to CNN about how it responds to the potential risks identified.

Riley, the former FAA employee, said controllers view NASA’s reporting system as a way to warn the agency about potential dangers, but that it can often feel as though they are shouting into the void. He said the FAA should especially pay attention to concerns raised repeatedly at the same facilities.

The reports show that controllers have been attempting to do this for years in some cases – particularly at a regional air traffic control center in the Miami area.

In the fall of 2021, three controllers working there described how the radar screen and radio frequencies failed at the same time — leaving them unable to communicate or monitor planes on a busy day as bad weather rolled in — and urged upgrades to the facility’s “outdated and unreliable” equipment.

“If these type of events happen once it’s one too many. Controllers were put in harms way and took drastic measures to maintain some type of order and safety to the flying public,” a controller wrote in September 2021, adding that they scrambled with controllers from other facilities to track down the planes and reroute them to airspace where they could be monitored.

“It could’ve been horrible for everyone involved,” the same controller wrote. “Thankfully, there was no need to be on the evening news because of a catastrophic event.”

Another Miami controller echoed that concern in a different complaint filed in the same month, writing that “if the agency truly believes safety is the number one priority, these issues will be resolved as if life depends on it because it actually does.”

Earlier this year, a colleague at that same facility even suggested it should be closed until safety improvements are made, saying they had recently lost the ability to see or communicate with planes for at least 15 minutes when their only working radio frequency and radar went out at the same time.

“This is a systemic issue we have now for years. I hope someone will read this and make proper corrections,” the controller wrote in February. “I am all about safety, but I need tools to complete my job at the highest level. … Very dangerous operation.”

Other facilities have faced multiple complaints as well. In at least three reports filed in the last two years about an air traffic control center in Albuquerque, controllers reported frequent problems with their radio transmitters that caused difficulty communicating with pilots.

“We run into this same issue every single day. It’s only a matter of time before there’s an accident with an aircraft that we can’t talk to or find the right radio settings in time to save,” one controller wrote last year.

“This is a massive sector, there are mountains, this is totally unsafe and it’s going to get someone killed,” wrote another in 2023, saying management was “constantly hid[ing] the severity of the situation.”

 

‘Safety truly is compromised’

In the wake of Newark’s repeated outages – including a roughly 90-second blackout last month that prompted numerous controllers to take trauma leave – Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pledged a massive modernization of the air traffic control system by 2028.

Duffy said the agency “is going to undertake an initiative that has never been done before,” and that the country’s aging air traffic control infrastructure “jeopardizes critical communications” and leads to safety issues.

Experts said the safety reports reviewed by CNN illustrate the real-world consequences of the FAA’s apparent inability to address these equipment challenges.

“It’s clear that issues with communication and surveillance equipment are both frequent and operationally significant,” said Timothy Johnson Sr., an assistant professor of aviation at Hampton University and a former air traffic controller and training manager for the US Air Force.

Johnson said the extended frequency outages, lack of radar capabilities and generally “degraded surveillance capabilities” described in the reports reflected “systemic weaknesses” that increase both controller workload and the likelihood of dangerous situations in the air and on runways.

The fact that more high-profile incidents haven’t occurred is a testament to the commitment and resourcefulness of air traffic controllers and pilots, experts said.

“We do our best with what we have,” said Whittle, who insists that flying remains the safest way to travel.

The FAA advisories do show that outages occur regularly, McCormick said, though he noted that in the vast majority of cases, controllers were able to use back-up or alternative systems.

Other aviation experts said that even though controllers have become adept at handling regular outages, these disruptions can still be dangerous.

Whittle, who spent nearly two decades as an air traffic controller, said he has first-hand experience with radio and radar failures and would “wager the majority of controllers have experienced this as well.”

The FAA said its plan to overhaul the system will include replacing thousands of radios and hundreds of radars and will add new air traffic control centers for more comprehensive coverage.

But this is going to take time and extensive resources, and Duffy acknowledged that it won’t be possible without billions of dollars in funding from Congress.

Riley said he worries about what could happen in the meantime as outages continue to rattle the airline industry.

Last week, controllers in Denver experienced a 90-second loss of communications while a number of planes were in their airspace. In audio reviewed by CNN, a pilot can be heard telling other pilots to switch frequencies in an attempt to communicate.

On Monday, controllers overseeing planes flying in and out of Newark experienced yet another communications failure – this time lasting roughly two seconds.

Riley said similar outages could easily happen somewhere else, and the outcome could be worse next time, especially in a congested airspace.

“When all the redundancies break down,” said Riley, “those are the scary situations where the stress level goes up and where the safety truly is compromised and fatalities can happen.”

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