Schumer calls on Transportation Secretary Duffy to 'immediately fix' Newark Airport situation
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is demanding U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy "immediately fix the situation at Newark Airport," following a stretch of travel mishaps and chaos.
"When people hear about radar screens just going dark, traffic controllers who cannot talk to planes, technology that is seemingly working no better than tin cans, they do not think this is a story about the Trump administration’s FAA, but that is what is so scary: this story is real and this story is dangerous. This situation is also unacceptable," Schumer said in a statement on Sunday.
"I have communicated this past week with the FAA, and I feel no better today than a week ago about the state of aviation safety since this administration took the controls at FAA. As I said last week, Newark is a harbinger. If this dangerous situation can happen in the metro region, imagine what might happen in places where there is less scrutiny. This really makes you worry."
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On Thursday, more than 500 flights in and out of Newark were delayed and at least 200 others were canceled, and chaos followed throughout the weekend.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed the situation on poor technology in an X post.
"The technology that we are using is old. That’s what is causing the outages and delays we are seeing at Newark," Duffy wrote.
Schumer stated there have been an average of 34 arrival cancellations per day since mid-April at Newark, according to the FAA, with the number of delays increasing throughout the day from an average of five in the mornings to 16 by the evening. They tend to last 85 to 137 minutes on average, reports say.
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On Sunday, Schumer said Duffy "must put Newark first in line for fixes he said would be made to the nation’s ATC systems."
He also gave specific details about the work that needs to be done, including installing a DIRECT fiber-optic telco line between Newark Airport and Philadelphia terminal radar approach control center, no more indirect runaround. Schumer called for a "modernized, direct connection and new computers to analyze and display transmitted data."
In a lengthy statement obtained by Fox News and Fox Business, the FAA acknowledged that "several major airlines are facing ongoing flight disruptions at New Jersey's Newark-Liberty International Airport as the facility contends with ongoing staffing and technology issues."
"Last week, air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facility in Philadelphia lost radar and radio signals while directing planes to Newark for nearly 90 seconds, causing significant delays and flight cancellations that remain ongoing," the statement continued.
"We are working to ensure the current telecommunications equipment is more reliable in the New York area by establishing a more resilient and redundant configuration with the local exchange carriers. In addition, we are updating our automation system to improve resiliency."
When reached by Fox News Digital, a representative for Duffy pointed to an interview the secretary gave earlier in the day to FOX Business' "The Evening Edit."
"I love Democrats who are now all concerned about air traffic control," Duffy said.
"They spent $1.2 trillion in the Biden-Buttigieg era; $1 .2 trillion on American infrastructure, and they didn't spend anything on air traffic [control] and they knew it was getting old and needed a massive rebuild. They didn't do it. Now they're complaining during the Trump administration, we're the ones that are."
Fox News Digital's Andrea Margolis and Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected]
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