Flights in Northeast Paused After Fiber Line Accidentally Cut

The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily paused flights on Monday at several major Northeast airports after an Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut a fiber-optic line in New Jersey, causing a telecommunications outage, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.

Flights have resumed at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Philadelphia International Airport, while incoming flights remain paused at Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy International, and Teterboro airports, Duffy said.

“This incident underscores the need for additional funding to modernize aging infrastructure and prevent disruptions like this in the future,” Duffy said in a post on X.

The flight-tracking website FlightAware reported more than 5,600 U.S. flights were delayed or canceled. There were 1,200 flights delayed or canceled from the three New York-area airports.

The outage occurred as around 130 world leaders along with ministers were arriving in New York City for an annual U.N. meeting that starts Sept. 22 and goes until Sept. 28.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the disruption began when the primary communications circuit at the agency’s Philadelphia air traffic control facility failed. Officials then discovered that a construction crew had severed the backup fiber line in New Jersey.

Bedford said incoming flights would remain halted until the FAA determined that the airspace was safe.

“When it went to flip into the backup, we discovered ​that the backup fiber had a ​break, and that fiber break is ⁠probably 13 hours to repair. It’s massive, I’m told. Meanwhile, we’ve got the new circuit ready to install now,” Bedford said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

This is a developing story and will be updated.