NJ Transit says its crew cut the fiber line that grounded Northeast flights

Bedford: ‘Archaic network’ will persist without new funding

NJ Transit said late Monday that one of its construction crews accidentally severed the fiber-optic cable that served as a backup to the primary circuit that failed, causing air-traffic controllers to lose radar data and radio communications. The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded flights at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and at John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports in New York.

In the initial confusion over what happened, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a social-media post that an Amtrak construction crew had accidentally cut into a fiber line that resulted in the air-travel delays — a claim denied by the passenger railroad, on whose board Duffy sits. NJ Transit later acknowledged that one of its own crews had cut the cable.

The transit agency said the crew had been operating about 10 feet from utility markings, according to preliminary information. Staff are working to determine whether Verizon or the contractor was responsible for the utility markings at the site, the agency said. A Verizon spokesman said the telecommunications company bears no responsibility for the incident but did not immediately comment on the markings.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford had earlier said a contractor apparently accidentally cut roughly 600 feet of fiber communications line in New Jersey, and the FAA was seeking to replace the circuit Monday. Speaking at a press conference focused on a new AI-powered tool aimed at reducing air-traffic disruptions, Bedford explained how the outage unfolded.

“Unfortunately, that circuit failed today, and when it went to flip into the backup, we discovered that the backup fiber had a break,” Bedford said. He added that the break should take 13 hours to repair.

Around 90 flights had been diverted because of the outage by early Monday afternoon, Bedford said. Delays compounded at Newark and Philadelphia — the hardest-hit airports — with spillover disruptions at the other New York City airports and Boston. By midafternoon Monday, Newark and nearby Teterboro — a key hub for private jets — were still under a ground stop, while other airports affected by the outage were undergoing ground delay programs.

Bedford and Duffy used the moment to press for more federal funding to overhaul a transportation system they described as often dysfunctional. “There’s no consensus on whether we’ll get funding to replace this archaic network or not,” Bedford said. “If we don’t get funding to replace it, this is just the way it will be for America for the foreseeable future.”

The disruption came at an inopportune time for the United Nations General Assembly in New York, which began in early September and draws leaders from around the world. “Timing is absolutely horrible, and I’m very sorry for the delays and cancellations that the traveling public is experiencing, but their safety is the most important thing,” Bedford said. “We are going to do what is necessary to make sure the airspace is safe, and then we’ll restart it.”

Monday’s disruption was the latest in a series of air-traffic problems in recent years tied to faulty or aging equipment, and to contractors interfering with it. Newark was subjected to a series of significant disruptions last year and more earlier this year, and the Dallas area and Upper Midwest have also experienced similar outages.