Gov. Phil Murphy has expressed confidence in the safety of operations at Newark Liberty International Airport despite recent challenges with air traffic control equipment and staffing. Speaking after a groundbreaking event for Netflix Studios at Fort Monmouth, Murphy stated, “I don’t believe, and I’ve heard no evidence on the contrary, that there’s a safety issue.” He acknowledged a “huge mismatch in supply-demand” regarding flights and available manpower.
On April 28, an outage caused air traffic control computer screens to go dark for 60 to 90 seconds at Newark Liberty, hindering communication with aircraft. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Acting Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Chris Rocheleau assured during a press conference that the airport remains safe.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby also affirmed on CBS News’ Face the Nation that flights are safe nationwide. “It absolutely is safe at Newark and the entire country,” Kirby said, emphasizing their preparedness for such outages through training and backup procedures.
Delays persisted on Monday night with average backups over 1.5 hours due to a shortage of air traffic controllers. The shortage was exacerbated by several controllers taking trauma leave following the radar outage, as noted by FAA spokesperson Kristen Alsop.
Murphy conveyed his trust in efforts being made by federal authorities, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, airport operators, and United Airlines to address these issues. He praised recent technological upgrades at facilities handling Newark’s traffic: “(Duffy) has a great long-term plan which I support in terms of finally investing in technology, finally hiring the manpower we need to hire,” he said while calling for immediate increases in staff levels.
