Airport news
The gist
A cut cable grounded flights at major US airports, with over 1,000 canceled nationwide on Monday.
The outage exposed aging air traffic control infrastructure that regulators say needs modernization.
How it unfolded
- Sep 21, 2026A ground stop was issued at Philadelphia International, Newark Liberty International and Teterboro Airport due to an equipment outage; the FAA paused flights over frequency issues at Philadelphia TRACON.
- Sep 21, 2026FAA official Bryan Bedford said a circuit failed and a backup fibre circuit was damaged by construction crews in New Jersey; repair would take around 13 hours.
- Sep 21, 2026More than 1,000 flights were canceled nationwide and over 6,000 delayed; no commercial flights landed at Newark from about 9:40 a.m. to just after 5:20 p.m. local time.