United Airlines pulled 35 round-trip flights a day following a radar outage at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey last week.
Last Monday air traffic controllers lost communication with planes flying in and out of Newark for about 90 seconds.
National Air Traffic Controllers Association told Bloomberg News that Newark “temporarily lost radar and communications with the aircraft under their control, unable to see, hear, or talk to them.”
“Air traffic controllers guiding planes bound for Newark Liberty International Airport lost radar and radio communication for more than a minute early last week before flights at the key hub were snarled for days, according to people familiar with the matter,” Bloomberg reported.
“The outage of those key systems occurred on April 28 and lasted nearly 90 seconds, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the matter because it isn’t public. Following the incident, multiple employees were placed on trauma leave, the people said,” Bloomberg reported.
United grounded flights after an air traffic controller said Newark is “not safe.”
“We feel like there is no other choice in order to protect our customers,” United CEO Scott Kirby said.
The FAA released an urgent statement on Monday