NBC’s Kristen Welker grilled Sean Duffy on the repeated air traffic control outages at Newark Liberty Airport and the transportation secretary didn’t seem convinced that his agency has a handle on the ongoing crisis.
“Why does this keep happening?” Welker asked Duffy on Meet the Press. The New Jersey airport—sitting in the country’s busiest airspace—has been hit by three equipment outages in just two weeks, the latest on Sunday morning.
Duffy blamed the lapses on old technology and poor congressional oversight, claiming “Congress and the country haven’t paid attention to it.”
Moreover, “What you see in Newark is going to happen in other places across the country,” Duffy said. “It has to be fixed, and so what we’re having is some telecom issues, but we’re also having some glitches in our software. As the information comes in, it’s overloading some of our lines, and the system goes down.”
The transportation secretary earlier announced plans to limit the number of flights that come into Newark, which he said was part of a mission to keep the airport “safe.” However, he also claimed it was safe to fly into the airport—and the U.S. at large.
“Listen, we are the safest airspace, for sure, and traveling by air is way safer than any other mode of transportation, which is why I take it, my family takes it,” Duffy said. “But again, that doesn’t mean you don’t look over the horizon and say, “Hey, if there is a major outage, could that be a risk to life?” Of course it could be, which is why we fix it.”
He has sought to add more air traffic controllers to the workforce, announcing new incentives and raising the retirement age. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
A “telecommunications issue” triggered a 45-minute ground stop for Newark-bound flights Sunday—just two days after the air traffic controllers experienced a 90-second radar blackout; on April 28, a radar and radio meltdown forced five controllers to take trauma leave. FAA alerts and air traffic audio indicate at least five other equipment or communications issues at the airport since August.
Equipment failures and staffing issues have caused widespread flight delays and cancellations at the airport. Meanwhile, the Trump administration on Thursday proposed a multibillion-dollar overhaul of the country’s troubled air traffic control system, calling for six new control centers and tech upgrades at all air traffic facilities nationwide.
During his interview Sunday, Duffy also said he plans to increase the mandatory retirement age for all air traffic controllers from 56 to 61 years old. A nationwide shortage has left the system 3,000 controllers short, according to the Associated Press.
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