The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Thursday that Denver air traffic control lost communications about two minutes on Monday but was able to stay in touch via emergency frequencies.

The FAA communication failure has attracted public confidence due to a series of telecommunications in a facility that oversees Newark air traffic. With the facilities dealing with Newark traffic on April 28, the radar screen in Denver is not blank.

Franklin McIntosh, deputy director of the FAA Air Traffic Control Agency, heard in a House of Representatives that both the primary and the standby frequency failed for about two minutes at the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center, but then a controller was able to propagate onto the aircraft to move to the secondary frequency.

He said there was no separation between the aircraft during the interruption. "They did make a security protocol," McIntosh said.

"Anytime there are these interruptions, which happen more routinely now, is very worrying," Democratic representative Robert Garcia, told the FAA oversight hearing.

Given the aging equipment, it is not uncommon for one and other issues in Denver.

A report from the Government Responsibility Office last year said that FAA has 138 information systems for air traffic control, while 51 are unsustainable due to outdated features, lack of spare parts and other issues. The report requires the agency to take "emergency action."

The FAA told GAO last year that it does not intend to complete modernization projects on many systems within at least a decade.

The FAA said part of the center experienced communication losses around 1.50 p.m. in Denver, when both transmitters covering parts of the airspace fell.

"The controller used another frequency to pass the indication to the pilot. The aircraft remained safely separated and had no effect on operation," the FAA said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) transferred control of Newark airspace to Philadelphia last year to address personnel traffic and congested New York area traffic. However, the FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers at the target staff level.

The latest incident highlights the aging infrastructure of the air traffic control network and follows U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy last week proposed spending billions of dollars in the next three to four years to fix it.