Equipment outage grounds planes at some major airports: FAA

The outages impacted flights into Philadelphia, Teterboro and Newark Liberty International due to some issues with radio communications within the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) region.

Published: September 21, 2026 2:16pm

An equipment outage grounded planes at airports in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania on Monday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. 

The outages impacted flights into Philadelphia, Teterboro and Newark Liberty International due to some issues with radio communications within the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) region. 

Ground stops were also issued at John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia Airport and Westchester County Airport, Fox News reported

FAA Administrator Brian Bedford told Fox that the Philly TRACON lost their primary circuit, and when controllers switched to the backup systems, they learned the fiber optic cable had a break. Bedford added that TRACON may come back up Monday afternoon, but the fiber optic cable could take 13 hours to fix. 

 

 

 

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