The safety meltdown at Newark Liberty International Airport was likely to continue Monday night, with just one fully qualified person staffing air traffic control during its busiest time, according to the New York Post.
Despite 15 air traffic controllers being the standard requirement per shift, one controller and a trainee will direct every flight into and out of Newark between 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
One New York-based controller, who spoke with the Post on condition of anonymity, called the situation "pure insanity" and said, according to the schedule, the airport control tower will be operating "at bare bones" while 168 to 180 planes are scheduled to arrive and depart.
The New Jersey airport was originally facing a "zero ATC event," Monday afternoon — meaning no one was set to show up — until an air traffic controller who was scheduled to be off agreed to cover the shift.
"One of the controllers is canceling his day off and coming into work. But that's not going to safely cover the entire system," the source told the Post.
A similar situation happened Sunday, the source said, when only two controllers worked the night shift.
"15 is the target for [Newark's airport]," he told the Post. "Anything less than half of that is rough. Safety begins to be compromised."
The source added that he has "never seen anything like this" in his entire career, which spans decades.
"If you get below half of that standard, so seven, your safety begins to be compromised and the Federal Aviation Administration knows that," he said. "So what they'll do is put out ground stop delays and that's what we're seeing across the country. But it's still just dangerous when one-three controllers are getting slammed."
At a press conference Monday afternoon, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said ,"It is clear that the blame belongs with the last administration."
He added, "[Former President] Joe Biden did nothing to fix the system they knew was broke."
Several ATCs who spoke with the Post said the New York-New Jersey airspace is considered one of the "busiest and most complex" in the country.
Newark's airport experienced two radar and communications blackouts in two weeks, in which air traffic controllers lost audio contact with pilots and saw their radar screens go dark. The outages have prompted the FAA to propose limiting Newark to 56 operations per hour, and airlines and the agency are reportedly slated to meet Wednesday to discuss cutting flights.
The Post's source said the Biden administration was to blame for the staffing shortages that have snarled air traffic in recent days at one of the nation's busiest airports.
"It is because [former Transportation Secretary] Pete Buttigieg and the union collaborated and moved the [Newark] sector from Long Island [in New York] to Philadelphia last summer in the name of 'staffing concerns'," he said.
The FAA previously said the chaos at Newark Airport was aggravated by reduced staffing levels caused by several air traffic controllers who went on trauma leave of up to 45 days following the equipment failures.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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