Cut Fiber Cable Disrupts Hundreds of US Flights
Construction crews in New Jersey accidentally severed a Verizon fiber cable used for air traffic control, grounding flights at all three major New York City airports and contributing to over 1,000 flight cancellations nationwide.
Hundreds of flights across the US Northeast were cancelled or delayed on Monday after construction crews in New Jersey accidentally cut a Verizon fiber cable used to support air traffic control operations.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the severed cable was discovered after a circuit failure. The resulting outage hit airports throughout the Northeast hard, triggering ground stops at all three major New York City airports.
Blame shifts between parties
In a statement to CNBC, Verizon said it bears no responsibility for the incident, placing blame on construction contractors working in the area who it said dug up and cut its cable.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said an Amtrak crew accidentally cut the line. However, according to the Associated Press, Amtrak instead blamed a New Jersey Transit crew for the disruption. An Amtrak spokesperson told NBC4 that the incident occurred on New Jersey Transit property and involved a New Jersey Transit contractor.
Repairs completed, delays linger
By Monday evening, Duffy said the telecom lines had been repaired and airport operations throughout the Northeast were resuming, though he cautioned it would take some time to clear the backlog of existing delays. According to flight-tracking service FlightAware, more than 1,000 flights were cancelled across the US that day.
