Fearful pilots and air traffic controllers are begging the Federal Aviation Administration to repair the system’s aging infrastructure after equipment failures hit New Jersey’s crowded sky ten days after the remaining 12 aircraft flew out in 90 seconds.
Recently retired controllers told NBC News that “bombardment” controllers guiding aircraft inside and outside Newark Liberty International Airport were constantly worried that the radar system would lower or lose radio contact with pilots as they approached one of the country’s busiest airports.
Both failures occurred on April 28.
"It's everyone's worst nightmare," said Michael Donahue, who worked at Philadelphia International Airport for two decades until February when he shared the space with the controllers who were transporting their flights to Newark. "Every time the FAA goes back and says it won't happen again. It keeps happening."
Donahue, 53, said at least six times they used to track the radars that the plane suddenly stopped working. He said they lost radio contact with the pilot almost every week.
"People would scream from the room, 'We lost the frequency!'" Donahue said. "It's almost as scary because you can see two planes approaching each other and can't do anything."
Last year, the FAA moved the controller in charge of the aircraft, which departed from a Newark from a factory in New York to that agency in Philadelphia. The move aims to reduce controller workload at Long Island facilities, which are also handling traffic at other major New York City airports.
But there has been a problem since the transformation, Donahue said.
"Once they get here, they have frequency issues and one day they completely lose their radar," Donahue said. "It happens time and time again."
"They are at the pressure level 10 of Newark entering because every time they go in, do I lose the radar today? Will I lose the frequency?" he said. “I think they’re just breaking through.”
The technical breakdown of the Philadelphia terminal radar proximity control facility (Tracon) may put more pressure on pilots to avoid disasters.
Jason Ambrosi, president of the 79,000-member Airline Pilot Association, echoed the FAA’s call to address the outdated technology and staff shortages of the facility.
"For pilots who navigate through these skies every day, our message is clear: It is time to take decisive action immediately and a firm commitment to protecting and improving aviation safety and efficiency," Ambrosi said in a statement.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy insisted that the plane had never had any danger in a brief communication crash last week.
"Did the airplane crash? No. They have communication equipment," Duffy said on Fox News. "They can see other air traffic."
Ambrosi said the pilot was highly trained to foresee potential problems and communicate with crew members and others in the system to share “experiences of understanding and action.”
United Airlines, the main airline of Newark Airport, insisted that its pilot train had an air communication failure with air traffic controllers. CEO Scott Kirby assured employees in an email Wednesday that his pilots had thousands of hours of flight experience, were regularly trained in simulators, and had a program to re-establish communications if they lost radio contact with the controller.
Benjie Coleman, a former National Transportation Safety Commission investigator and FAA inspector, said that due to these protocols, the plane left behind in the dark is unlikely to collapse.
“The professional pilots and airlines flying these days have everything, including communication failures and radar failures,” said Coleman, who is also a pilot. "It's not a good situation, but it's not a fatal situation."
Nevertheless, there are some risks whenever the aircraft loses contact with air traffic controllers on the ground. "The longer the radar and radio outages last, the longer the risk of contact collisions increases," Jeff Guzzetti, a retired air safety investigator at NTSB and FAA, said in an email.
He said each air traffic control facility has its own "operational emergency plan" to deal with catastrophic events such as power outages.
"These systems have redundancy, but sometimes failures can be so large, or basic infrastructure happens that eliminate layoffs," Guzzetti said.
"Philadelphia doesn't seem to have layoffs," said Donahue, a recently retired Philadelphia controller.
If the radar system goes off, there is a button to press called "Emergency Services" which backs up the radar and immediately provides backup range, showing all aircraft, their altitude and speed, Donahue said.
But recently, when the team in Philadelphia, who handles Newark, has been hitting the backup button, he said: “Like a regular screen, it’s blank.”
"So, in that moment, they didn't matter." "I don't know why they haven't fixed it yet. They kept shouting from the roof to fix it."
Last week, the Newark airspace controller lost all contact with the pilot because the copper wire failed to transmit radar data from New York to Trecon, Philadelphia, the FAA said.
"It shows that we already have a fragile system that has to be fixed," Duffy said.
Since then, the FAA has announced plans to replace copper telecom connectivity with greater bandwidth and speeds.
To alleviate flight delays in Newark, the FAA wants to introduce more controllers, including some controller trainees, to replace the five people who have taken trauma leave since the April 28 incident, it said. The agency also plans to use temporary backup radar systems in Philadelphia to enable aircraft to enter and exit Newark faster.
The current Newark airspace controller told NBC News on Tuesday that he had at least a similar technical crash since August and that the controller lost radio contact with the pilots flying to Newark at least eight to nine times in recent months.
The controller said the team handling Newark air traffic six days a week, the equipment is unreliable, and the six-day working hours are 10 hours a day a week.
"The FAA has known this for years and they have waited too long to take action," the administrator said.