Watchdog finds FAA lacks real-time detection for jamming and spoofing threats
The Federal Aviation Administration issued the ground stop at about 10 a.m. Monday for Newark Liberty international, Philadelphia international and Teterboro airports. The agency said some radio frequencies at the Philadelphia terminal radar approach control (Tracon) facility were affected until the early afternoon. Arrivals and departures at Newark were delayed. The FAA has not stated what caused the outage.
The disruption coincided with the publication of a Government Accountability Office report that found the FAA has yet to complete risk assessments or update security documentation covering threats from spoofing, jamming and other attacks on the radio spectrum. The FAA also lacks a real-time system to detect such threats, meaning it can generally only investigate incidents after they are reported, according to the watchdog.
Investigators warned that a hacker could send fraudulent messages to aircraft — including false cancellations of flight clearances — with the potential to cause delays, disrupt airspace or create safety risks. The GAO found that two systems used to send text messages to aircraft predate modern cybersecurity standards and lack common protections such as encryption.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who has long campaigned on privacy, surveillance and cybersecurity issues, called for swift federal action. “The FAA’s failure to require the aviation industry to use secure communications is a major threat to US national security, to our economy and the safety of the flying public,” Wyden said. He added: “The FAA needs to issue new standards, as soon as possible, to protect the security of airline communications.”
Wyden, who sits on the Senate intelligence committee, said the GAO report “reveals that the technology used by air traffic controllers to communicate with aircraft is incredibly insecure, can be intercepted, impersonated, and jammed, and that hackers and foreign governments can exploit these vulnerabilities to disrupt air travel and even put passengers at risk.”
The GAO made nine recommendations, including a formal risk assessment of seven of eight reviewed systems, continuous monitoring for interference, spoofing and jamming, and formal guidance on information sharing. The Department of Transportation, replying for the FAA, agreed with all nine.
Monday’s disruption is the latest in a run of problems around Newark. In April 2025, an outage blanked controllers’ screens for roughly 60 to 90 seconds and cut their contact with aircraft, prompting the FAA to halt departures. The FAA later moved the Philadelphia Tracon to a new fiber-optic link with New York on two separate paths as part of measures to improve reliability.
The FAA handles more than 44,000 flights a day and about 3 million passengers, the GAO noted.
The watchdog report also pointed to foreign interference in aviation signals. Estonia and Finland have accused Russia of interfering with satellite navigation in their airspace, which Moscow denies. One incident last September involved a Spanish military jet carrying the country’s defense minister.