NEWARK, NJ (Headline News USA) (Copyright © 2025) – When the radar screens blinked out and radio silence followed, air traffic controllers at a facility overseeing Newark Liberty International Airport were suddenly flying blind. For about 90 seconds, the room at the Philadelphia TRACON facility went from the usual buzz of aviation chatter to stunned quiet. No radar. No comms. Just a pit in the stomach.

The outage, which hit on April 28, brought one of the nation’s busiest airports to a halt. According to internal audio recordings obtained by 6ABC Philadelphia, a controller calmly told pilots, “Approach lost all the radars. Three of the four radar screens went black and they have no frequency.” The only thing more chilling than the words was the calm tone — the kind that hides panic with routine.

It wasn’t a software glitch or cyberattack. A damaged copper wire — the kind of failure you’d expect in a decades-old facility — was to blame. That small but critical breakdown sent shockwaves through an already strained system. Newark-bound departures were halted. Controllers scrambled. A few reportedly wept.

The FAA hasn’t said much publicly, but insiders confirmed to multiple outlets that at least three controllers have since taken trauma-related leave under the Federal Employees Compensation Act, some for up to 45 days. They’ll need medical clearance to return, according to a report by the New York Post.

On the surface, the outage was short — barely more than a minute. But in air traffic control, that’s enough time for a midair disaster. While no accidents occurred, the near miss spotlighted a more enduring crisis: chronic understaffing, aging infrastructure, and a workforce buckling under the weight of a system that hasn’t kept up.

“This facility has been running on fumes for years,” one controller told Business Insider on background, citing retirements, budget issues, and a relentless workload.

The Philadelphia TRACON — which took over Newark’s airspace just last year — was already stretched thin. Then the outage hit. Then the trauma leave. Then the delays.

In the days since, Newark has seen cascading fallout. Flight cancellations have spiked from a daily average of four to nearly 40. On-time departures have tanked, dropping from 80% to 63%, according to FAA data shared by 6ABC. United Airlines, which accounts for the lion’s share of Newark flights, has been forced to cut 35 daily roundtrips just to keep operations semi-functional.

“Newark cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in a sharply worded statement, adding that the FAA’s staffing and tech problems have reached a breaking point.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has since promised to ramp up controller hiring, targeting 2,000 new recruits this year. That might help, eventually. But hiring, certifying, and deploying air traffic controllers takes years, not months.

In the meantime, lawmakers are stepping in. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called for a full forensic review of the incident. “This wasn’t just a blip,” he said during a press conference. “It’s a flashing red light that the system is broken.”

The FAA has said it’s investigating. But for now, the agency’s own admission paints a stark picture: “Our antiquated air traffic control system is affecting our workforce,” an FAA spokesperson told The Guardian, bluntly acknowledging what many in the industry have been saying for years.

Travelers flying into or out of Newark this summer may want to brace themselves. The ripple effects from a 90-second failure are proving to be long and painful — not just for passengers, but for the people trying to keep them safe from a dimly lit control room somewhere outside Philly.

Sometimes the scariest thing in aviation isn’t what happens. It’s what almost did.

Photo credit: “Air Traffic Controllers” by Avijeet, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.