What Happened
Northeast Flights Impacted By Damaged Communications Lines
Flights were taking off and landing at New York City-area airports on Tuesday, despite some delays and cancellations, after hours of disruptions caused by damaged communications lines at a key air traffic control facility in Philadelphia. The outage, which was later repaired, had affected every major airport in the New York City area, with hundreds of flights canceled throughout the U.S. Northeast on Monday. According to PBS News, the primary communications line at the Federal Aviation Administration facility in Philadelphia had failed, while the backup fiber optic line was inadvertently severed by railroad construction workers.