'Scopes just went black again': US' Newark airport hit by new radar outage

A facility that guides air traffic in and out of Newark airport suffered a new 90-second communications outage early on May 9, the second in two weeks, prompting an air traffic controller to complain that "scopes just went black again" to a nearby FedEx flight.

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NEWARK/WASHINGTON - A facility that guides air traffic in and out of Newark airport suffered a new 90-second communications outage early on May 9, the second in two weeks, prompting an air traffic controller to complain that "scopes just went black again" to a nearby FedEx flight.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the telecommunications outage impacted communications and radar displays at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (Tracon) that guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport around 3.55am Eastern Time on May 9 (3.55pm in Singapore) and lasted approximately 90 seconds.

The latest incident highlights the air traffic control network's ageing infrastructure and comes a day after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy proposed spending billions of dollars to fix it over the next three to four years.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said "there was a glitch in the system" caused by the same telecoms issue that caused the prior incident. She said the goal was to address the technical issue later on May 9 "to prevent further issues".