Science Friday - What Happens When Air Traffic Control Systems Go Dark?

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

At the end of April, air traffic control radar surveillance and radio communication systems at Newark Liberty International Airport went dark for over a minute. A week and half later, radar went down again briefly. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has since cut down the number of flights in and out of Newark. But, how does our air traffic control system work? How do air traffic controllers keep track of all of the planes in the sky? And what happens when systems fail? Michael McCormick, a former air traffic control operations manager at the FAA, joins Host Flora Lichtman to dive into the science of air traffic control. Guest: Dr. Michael McCormick is a former vice president of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization,  and an associate professor and program coordinator of Air Traffic Management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.Transcripts for the segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Hey, this is Flor Lixman and you're listening to Science Friday. Today on the show, Inside the Air Traffic Control Tower, when things go wrong. Anthony Bourdain wrote that being a chef is a lot like being an air traffic controller. You're one second away from disaster. You've probably read about the recent outages at the air traffic control center that directs takeoff and landing for Newark Airport. At the end of April, radar went black for over a minute, and then a week and a half later, it went down again briefly. and Newark has caught back on flights in and out. Maybe your flights have been canceled or delayed as a result.

So it made us wonder, how does our air traffic control system work? How do air traffic controllers keep track of the planes in the skies and what is happening when those systems fail? Here to field those questions and dive into the science of air traffic control is Dr. Michael McCormick, who worked as an air traffic controller for 10 years and was a vice president within the federal aviation administration. He's an associate professor at Emory Riddle Aeronautical University based in Daytona Beach, Florida. Michael, welcome to Science Friday. Thank you, Florida. It's an absolute pleasure to be here. Okay. As a former air traffic controller who used to work in the New York Airspace, when this news broke about the outages at Newark, what was your response?

Initially, as I heard about the alleges, I knew about the fact that the approach control service, moved from Long Island to Philadelphia. So I immediately thought something happened in that link that caused that to happen. Tell me more. The approach control services for all the New York metropolitan airports are handled by a facility on Long Island called the New York TRACON. Last summer, due to staffing issues at the New York TRACON, they moved a portion of that approach control from Long Island to Philadelphia, and then they had to link up the equipment to provide the radar

and radio at Philadelphia for the Newark Airspace. It immediately struck me that the air traffic controllers at Philadelphia providing the approach control service lost two of their most important tools in order to be able to provide safe and efficient air traffic control. Which were? Number one, one way of getting your situation awareness. And in this case, case, that would be radar. The second piece is communication. Inter traffic controller cannot carry out their operational plan without the ability to communicate back and forth with the aircraft. And they lost both. And they lost both simultaneously. So that put the controllers at Philadelphia in the an envial position of having to come up with, how do I restore this service, what backups do I have,

and who do I need to connect with to make this happen? How unusual is this? This is very unusual to lose both radar and radio. There are equipment allergies that occur throughout the air traffic control system. Even though it's built to be 99.9% reliable, it relies upon a system of redundancy so that when allergies do occur, there are backups that can be switched over to in order to provide that service. And why were there not backups in this case? In this case, it was what's known as being single-threaded, and that is a single telecommunication line from Long Island to Philadelphia

failed, and it didn't have a redundant telecommunication line to provide a backup to it. That since has been resolved. There is now a backup line. That is correct for it. How dangerous Is it for radio and radar to go out, you know, for over a minute? Fortunately, not only your traffic controllers are trained to be able to work around and come up with backups. Pilots are also trained and how to operate when there's loss of communication or a loss of radar at the air traffic control. On board each aircraft, there is a system known as traffic alert and collision avoidance system. And this essentially in the cockpit looks out into the airspace to all the other aircraft and will provide alerts to a pilot so they can see other aircraft. That, of course, is not the most optimal way providing safe and efficient air traffic, but it is that final backup that will avoid a collision.

So I want to understand this technology better. You know, I feel surprised that radar is still how air traffic controllers know where planes are, given that, you know, my phone knows where I am down to 15 feet, obviously using GPS. So why radar? Radar has been the backbone of air traffic control surveillance since World War II. However, the Federal Aviation Administration is transitioning from that ground-based radar system to a space-based air traffic control system. similar to what you would have on your phone. Transitioning currently? Like, where are we in that transition? That transition has actually taken place. So now that surveillance capability is provided through satellites to the air traffic control automation system.

At the same time, it's also receiving the radar. And the reason why that is is because not every aircraft in the United States, especially the small, privately owned general aviation aircraft, are equipped. to transition to a space-based system. I'm very curious about the job of an air traffic controller. How automated is the system and how much is really up to the air traffic controller to make decisions about what planes do? The air traffic control profession is an extraordinary profession. I can think of nothing that is more rewarding than that.

It sounds like you liked your job. Yes, I did. And part of it is because the constant challenges that you have to go through in terms of making instantaneous decisions. So technology plays a big role in that. It is an important aid to an air traffic controller that enables a controller to handle higher volumes of traffic. However, it still relies heavily upon the air traffic controller as an individual to be able to maintain that situational awareness, develop that plan of action, implement it, and then constantly updated. They cannot and hasn't been replaced by automation.

Anthony Bourdain wrote that being a chef is a lot like being an air traffic controller. You're one second away from disaster. That sounds stressful. Is that how it felt, though? No, that is not how it felt. If you do the profession, you do the job because you like it, that is part of what you enjoy. If you do it strictly for the pay,

then you'll start to feel that stress of making those instantaneous decisions. We asked our listeners what questions they had for you, Michael, and they had some good ones. Let's bring on Reed from Levita, Colorado. Reed's a pilot. Go ahead. Yeah, Michael, I'm just wondering if air traffic controllers, if they have to have something special about their brain

that they're able to keep everything straight, 10 planes flying in there, three-divensional picture in their mind, like their brains might be different than the average person on the street. Any response for Reed? Reed, that is a great question. And that is an aptitude that all their traffic controllers are tested on. And then through training and experience, you're able to expand that aptitude, essentially you build a mental model and you project that mental model into the future

and you use that new three-dimensional picture that you've projected to make a determination on what needs to happen in terms of your plan of action. Michael, are you keeping it all in your head? Do you write things down? I mean, do you have tricks for staying focused? Whenever you sit down at a radar display or stand, end up in her traffic control tower. You make sure everything is set up exactly the way you want it to be. So if you're in a control tower, you're going to make sure that the shades are drawn right to the

perfect level for you. You're going to know exactly where your pens are. So if you need to write something down on a flight progress trip, you can do that. If you're sitting at a radar display, you make sure your chair is perfectly positioned. So that then frees up your cognitive resources so you can develop and maintain that picture. And that allows you to have the focus on what you're doing and not have to worry about all the small things around you. We know part of the challenge that we're facing is a staffing shortage. Why is it so hard to find new air traffic controllers? Flores is not hard to find new air traffic controllers. The challenge is training them. It takes anywhere from

one to five years in order to train and certify as an air traffic controller. So there are more applicants every year for the vacant air traffic control positions than the FAA can actually hire and train. When might we see it go down? That shortage go down. Flora, I expect to see that in three to five years, we will no longer have the air traffic control shortage. That's a long time, Michael. Three to five years. I fly out of Newark. So, Flora, that is a long time. And, I can understand why you would be a little concerned about that. The FAA has protocols in place that whenever there happens to be any type of short staffing, either in an individual airport or an individual radar control facility, that they can move the flow of aircraft around

so they can balance out that workload with whatever the staffing is. Is AI changing air traffic control? AI is not changing air traffic control today, but is currently being developed to provide an assist tool to air traffic controllers, something known as a decision support tool, in that AI will be able to look at the entire trajectory of all the aircraft in the airspace in any one time, and there's usually about 5 to 7,000 aircraft in the air traffic control system at any given time, and be able to predict when there could be or will be a possible conflict between two trajectories and provide that information to the controller so the controller could then make the decision to change a flight path, change in altitude.

In your opinion, Michael, what do we need to do? What does the federal government need to do to shore up air traffic control? Flora, I believe that the U.S. government can do two things. one, ensure a reliable, consistent funding to the air traffic control system. Every time there is a government shutdown for one week, one day, or one month, that means during that time everything stops. There's no work on any new systems, and there's no hiring and training of air traffic controllers. So over time, whenever this happens, it causes a problem for the FAA. The second thing is, of course, air traffic control staffing, and that is providing

the funding and the ability for the FAA to provide incentives for controllers to move from facilities that are fully staffed or overstaffed to other air traffic control facilities that are understaffed or hard to staff. Don't go away. After the break, Mike tells us about his decision to shut down the NYC airspace during 9-11. If there was any one emotion, that I felt it was more anger that somebody would use something that I just love, and that's aviation, as a weapon against our country. You were in control of the New York City airspace on 9-11, I understand. That's correct for it.

I can't imagine what that day was like for you. Can you tell us about it? September 11, 2001 was both personally and professionally impactful to me. One, the previous weekend, we had spent the long weekend in Manhattan, and it was my younger son's first visit to World Trade Center. Then come Tuesday, September 11th, being notified at 8.40 in the morning, there's a possible hijack over New York and heading southbound. That is a unique experience. And then to go out and know that it was, in fact, a real hijack from the flight crew and the cabin crew. And then to watch that target as it went southbound toward New York City.

And I was actually on the phone with the Newark Air Traffic Control Tower, and I had informed them to look up the Hudson River. There might be a 767 attempting to land at your airport. And that's when they said it just hit the World Trade Center. At the exact moment, they said that a controller behind me said, I have another one. And that was, United 175, turned 180 degrees, and headed back toward New York City. Actually, I knew after the first aircraft, the warrants and we were under attack, and I knew the only way that I could prevent any additional attacks was to remove the weapon of choice, which was aircraft.

And that's why I made the decision to shut down all the New York airspace. That must have been so frightening. If there was any one emotion that I felt, it certainly wasn't fear. It was more anger, anger that somebody would use something that I, I just love, and that's aviation, as a weapon against our country. How did you get into this line of work? When I was in the Marine Corps, I got to know some air traffic controllers, and I felt that sounds like a really cool job.

So when I got out of the Marine Corps, I attempted to apply, and that time the FAA was done taking applications. But then the following year, the air traffic control strike happened. So the day of the air traffic control strike, I put in my application, and I was fortunate enough to get selected, and it's been a great time ever since. Do you miss it? Florin's still part of it. So I teach air traffic management. I train the air traffic controllers of the future.

So I get to see them every day. I get to work in a simulated air traffic control environments, both tower and in radar. And I work very closely with the FAA in a program where my students can be directly placed in air traffic control facilities. So I still consider myself a part of it, even though I'm not actively controlling airplanes. But yes, I would love to do that. Thank you for doing what you do, and thank you for talking to us today. Thank you, Flora. It's been my pleasure. Dr. Michael McCormick worked as an air traffic controller for 10 years and was vice president within the FAA.

He's an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University based in Daytona Beach, Florida. And that is about all we have time for. Lots of folks helped to make the show happen, including Shoshana Buxbaum. Beth Rami. Danielle Johnson. Jackie Hirschfeld. I'm Flora Lickman. Thanks for listening.