A Newark air traffic controller on the moment systems went dark

Enlarge this image Passengers arrive at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey on May 7, 2025. Kena Betancur / AFP/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Kena Betancur / AFP/Getty Images Passengers arrive at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey on May 7, 2025. Kena Betancur / AFP/Getty Images Federal regulators are now limiting the number of flights in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport. This comes after a harrowing month for the air traffic controllers who work the airspace around it. On April 28th, communications and radar systems went dark at the air traffic control facility in Philadelphia, where controllers manage the airspace around Newark. Since then there have been more outages. Hundreds of flights in and out of Newark have been cancelled or delayed since that first outage. Now the Federal Aviation Administration is slowing the pace of arrivals and departures. Sponsor Message Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy insists that will help. Still, these incidents have raised big questions. How did the mess in Newark get as bad as it did? And, What it will take to fix an aging air traffic control system. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at [email protected]. This episode was produced by Jeffrey Pierre and Connor Donevan. It was edited by Russell Lewis, Courtney Dorning and Justine Kenin. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.