EWR radios and radar fail again

🎶 “Eaaaaaaaaaasy credit rip off… GOOD TIMMMMMMMES! Ain’t we lucky we got em…” 🎶

Oh… wait…

All your crap is broken again?

My daughter is obsessed with Ernie Barnes. She didn’t know the connection with Good Times.


 
We just need an EWR/PHL mega thread.

Todays drama


EWR - THEY CALLED TO
ADVISE THERE IS AN ISSUE WITH HANDOFFS AT THE LIBERTY SECTOR. IT
IS A DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN 2 CONTROLLERS AND VECTORING AND
HANDOFFS. DEPT WERE STOPPED FOR 40 MINUTES AND HAVE NOW BEEN
RELEASED EXCEPT FOR SOUTHBOUND DEPT WHICH IS THE MAJORITY OF THE
DEPT RIGHT NOW. TOWER ADVISED THEY HAVE REACHED OUT TO ZNY TO
SEE IF THEY CAN REROUTE SOME OF THE DEPT. THEY ARE CONCERNED
WITH THE DEPT STOP AND THE AMOUNT OF A/C THEY HAVE WAITING TO
DEPT SOUTH. FWD:EAST Fwd by DCC/TTCA - LNK: EWR,ZNY
 

"A Message from United CEO Scott Kirby to our Customers
May 2, 2025
...
In the past few days, on more than one occasion, technology that FAA air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed - resulting in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delayed and canceled flights and worst of all, thousands of customers with disrupted travel plans. Unfortunately, the technology issues were compounded as over 20% of the FAA controllers for EWR walked off the job. Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it’s now clear – and the FAA tells us – that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead.

United is committed to doing absolutely everything in our power to minimize the impact that this will have on customers and so we are unilaterally cancelling 35 roundtrip flights per day from our Newark schedule starting this weekend. It's disappointing to make further cuts to an already reduced schedule at Newark, but since there is no way to resolve the near-term structural FAA staffing issues, we feel like there is no other choice in order to protect our customers.
..."
 
Heard a bunch of EWR controllers walked off the job.


"A Message from United CEO Scott Kirby to our Customers
May 2, 2025
...
In the past few days, on more than one occasion, technology that FAA air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed - resulting in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delayed and canceled flights and worst of all, thousands of customers with disrupted travel plans. Unfortunately, the technology issues were compounded as over 20% of the FAA controllers for EWR walked off the job. Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it’s now clear – and the FAA tells us – that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead.

United is committed to doing absolutely everything in our power to minimize the impact that this will have on customers and so we are unilaterally cancelling 35 roundtrip flights per day from our Newark schedule starting this weekend. It's disappointing to make further cuts to an already reduced schedule at Newark, but since there is no way to resolve the near-term structural FAA staffing issues, we feel like there is no other choice in order to protect our customers.
..."

Not walked off the job, took approved “trauma leave” after having their radar and radios go out AGAIN while the FAA wanted to run traffic like normal not knowing why or when the equipment would fail again.

And Scott Kirby can suck a dick. We warned him what would happen if the move goes through and he wanted it done.

Tonight there is me and one other controller and a supervisor from 1430L-1030L.
 
Not walked off the job, took approved “trauma leave” after having their radar and radios go out AGAIN while the FAA wanted to run traffic like normal not knowing why or when the equipment would fail again.

And Scott Kirby can suck a dick. We warned him what would happen if the move goes through and he wanted it done.

Tonight there is me and one other controller and a supervisor from 1430L-1030L.
Kirby? Since when does he have input on FAA staffing? Or did you mean Buttegeig?
 

"A Message from United CEO Scott Kirby to our Customers
May 2, 2025
...
In the past few days, on more than one occasion, technology that FAA air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed - resulting in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delayed and canceled flights and worst of all, thousands of customers with disrupted travel plans. Unfortunately, the technology issues were compounded as over 20% of the FAA controllers for EWR walked off the job. Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it’s now clear – and the FAA tells us – that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead.

United is committed to doing absolutely everything in our power to minimize the impact that this will have on customers and so we are unilaterally cancelling 35 roundtrip flights per day from our Newark schedule starting this weekend. It's disappointing to make further cuts to an already reduced schedule at Newark, but since there is no way to resolve the near-term structural FAA staffing issues, we feel like there is no other choice in order to protect our customers.
..."
Yes. This is the fault of the FAA. It is not the fault of United trying to cram 17 pounds of poop into a 5 pound bag. It is the fault of the FAA. The FAA, only.
 
Kirby? Since when does he have input on FAA staffing? Or did you mean Buttegeig?

UAL has a ton of pull with EWR ops. We request a lower rate because of staffing or runway closure, command center runs it past United first to see if they’re ok with it. Weve requested GDP’s get REMOVED and United shoots that down. If Kirby had come out in opposition to the move instead of supporting it, it probably would have killed it. Nobody at the FAA wants to jeopardize their post-retirement gig.
 
To be faaaair... if the equivalent snafu had happened at my shop, I'd be taking the rest of the day off too. Maybe the day after as well.

Also, this Kirby guy sounds like a dick.
 
Yes. This is the fault of the FAA. It is not the fault of United trying to cram 17 pounds of poop into a 5 pound bag. It is the fault of the FAA. The FAA, only.
Man, I’m gonna have to sort of disagree with you. It wasn’t UAL’s idea to move the TRACON and to award the IT bid to to company that, if I read previous posts correctly, promised that exactly this would happen when they pitched their reliability stats (I forget which previous thread it was but @NovemberEcho posted some numbers from the bid, and our resident ex-telecom expert @killbilly was basically like “yeah those are…not good numbers for safety critical infrastructure, why did the FAA accept that bid?”). Also, UAL may be happy to stuff 17 lbs in, but as the organization that’s supposed to be responsible for managing the traffic, it should be on the FAA to limit slots or whatever to what their staffing can handle, not acquiesce to what the airlines want and tell the front line employees to just figure it out. They’re supposed to be a safety agency, maybe they oughta act like it.
 
Man, I’m gonna have to sort of disagree with you. It wasn’t UAL’s idea to move the TRACON and to award the IT bid to to company that, if I read previous posts correctly, promised that exactly this would happen when they pitched their reliability stats (I forget which previous thread it was but @NovemberEcho posted some numbers from the bid, and our resident ex-telecom expert @killbilly was basically like “yeah those are…not good numbers for safety critical infrastructure, why did the FAA accept that bid?”). Also, UAL may be happy to stuff 17 lbs in, but as the organization that’s supposed to be responsible for managing the traffic, it should be on the FAA to limit slots or whatever to what their staffing can handle, not acquiesce to what the airlines want and tell the front line employees to just figure it out. They’re supposed to be a safety agency, maybe they oughta act like it.

Slot control is not an FAA thing. It's a political thing.
 
Slot control is not an FAA thing. It's a political thing.
if that process doesn’t take into account what ATC says the facility can handle that seems like a pretty deeply flawed process. But it also explains a lot about SEA, SAN, and SFO
 
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