Radar screens at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport went dark early Friday morning during a close call that narrowly avoided becoming the nation’s latest midair tragedy.
The momentary power outage took place at 3:55am ET, when air traffic was luckily very light.
It’s the second radar blackout in two weeks at Newark. Another power outage struck the airport’s air traffic control tower on April 28, sending computer screens dark for 60 to 90 seconds.
Days after the April 28 incident, an air traffic controller at Newark Airport warned flyers to stay away from the New Jersey airport.
The unnamed source told NBC’s Tom Costello: ‘It’s not a safe situation for the flying public!’
‘Don’t fly into Newark. Avoid Newark at all costs,’ the air traffic controller added.
According to Flightaware, there were already 66 cancellations and 208 flight delays reported at Newark as of 11am ET.
Newark is the second-busiest airport in the New York-New Jersey area. Nearly 49 million people travelers used the airport in 2024, behind only New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport.
This is a developing story. More updates to come.
Radar screens at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport went dark early Friday morning at 3:55am ET. It was the second momentary blackout in 2 weeks at the airport
