The Current - Air traffic controllers lose sight of planes for 90 seconds

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Air traffic controllers reportedly lost track of planes for 90 seconds at Newark airport recently in a chaotic radar outage that prompted some staff to take stress leave. We look at what led to this nightmare scenario, and what needs to be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

1942, Europe. Soldiers find a boy surviving alone in the woods. They make him a member of Hitler's army. But what no one would know for decades, he was Jewish. Could a story so unbelievable be true? I'm Dan Goldberg. I'm from CBC's personally, Toy Soldier. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is the Current Podcast. Proats lost all their radars. Three of the four radar screens went black and they have

no frequencies. It is a terrifying thing that no pilot or air traffic controller wants to experience planes flying blind. This is a glimpse into the moments that air traffic control for New Jersey's Newark Airport lost contact with several planes. The situation is called Nordo or No Radio. It happened last week for about 90 seconds, sending one of the busiest airports in the United States into chaos and delaying hundreds of flights, including some into and out of

Canada. The United States Federal Aviation Administration or FAA blamed equipment outages and staffing shortages. The situation was so stressful that some air traffic controllers have taken special leave from the job to recover and more than a week later many passengers are still facing disruptions. I was delayed getting in here on United and I'm getting delayed getting out of here on JetBlue. I'm just a little annoyed because I've never been delayed so much in my life.

Today our flight keeps getting pushed the back for a fourth time now and it's over five hours delayed now. The FAA says it will increase air traffic controller staffing at the approach control that handles Newark's air traffic. Later today the U.S. Transportation Secretary is set to announce a multi-billion dollar upgrade plan for the U.S. air traffic control system. Michael McCormick has over 30 years of experience in the aviation industry,

10 of those working as an air traffic controller. He was formerly head of the air traffic control for New York, a position he held on 9-11. He now teaches the next generation of controllers at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. Michael, good morning. Good morning, and good morning Canada. It's good to have you here.

You know the New York area skies really well. What do you make of what happened at Newark? I said it was a nightmare scenario, but for you, somebody who's been in that tower, is that the word you would use to describe it? It definitely was a crisis situation for the controllers involved. And I definitely feel for the stress and anxiety

that they went through in trying to alleviate the impact of this event. Walk us through what the air traffic controllers in that tower, in charge of Newark Airport, would have done during those moments where they had no contact. Again, you hear the radio calls, and it's, I don't know where you are. That's what they're saying to other pilots.

So what was going on? Essentially what's going on is you have the approach control facility, which is located in Philadelphia, and provides the arrival and departure services in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport. And the controllers are sitting at radar displays and they're plugged in utilizing headsets and microphones

to monitor on radar the flights of the air of going into and out of Newark and the adjacent satellite airports. And they're providing what's known as radar vectors, turns to intercept the final approach into Newark and turns for the departures coming airborne to get them on their route of flight to go to their destination.

And they're climbing and descending aircraft. So it's a very complex environment and seconds make a difference because you have air speeds sometimes exceeding over 250 miles an hour as the aircraft are flying to get on their route and speeds of 200 miles an hour as the aircraft are coming in and starting their initial approach into Newark.

So as aircraft converge at those types of speeds, you need to have your radar, and you need to have your radio in order to be able to provide a safe level of service and efficient level of service to those aircraft. And your understanding is, I mean, when they say, I don't know where you are, the screens that those air traffic controllers

are looking at, the screens just went blank? Essentially, that's one of the things that the screens will those air traffic controllers are looking at, the screens just went blank? Essentially, that's what it is. The screens will go blank and you'll lose all the targets and the associated alphanumerics with those targets, so you're not able to track or identify aircraft. Ninety seconds is a long time or a short time, depending on how you think about it. What is the worst-case scenario for your screen being blank

with those planes moving at those speeds for 90 seconds? 90 seconds is an extraordinary long time in this approach control environment. As I mentioned, it's not a lot of airspace. You have aircraft in it. And they're going to continue to fly on their flight path until they can reestablish radio and radar with the approach control.

So the system would then rely upon an onboard aircraft collision alert system that would then track all the adjacent aircraft that are independent of the air traffic control system. And then would provide alerts to the pilots in the event that there were any aircraft that they would be at risk of coming in conflict with. So it would solely depend upon that onboard

aircraft system to provide that safety net for those aircraft. Are you surprised in 90 seconds that nothing smashed into something else? Do you know, I spent a lot of time looking at, you know, those flight apps that you can have on your phone, flight radar and what have you, and it shows you how many planes are in the sky at once. You have to be able to manage all of those things.

If you can't see where they are, it's kind of incredible that nothing catastrophic happened. I believe that it was the cost of the flight nothing catastrophic happened? I believe that it was the calm professional work that the pilots and air crews did in order to keep moving and keeping safe. They were able to do things such as contact directly Newark International Control Tower and be able to speak to the controllers there. And they have a tower radar display that they're able to utilize to assist those aircraft.

Additionally, other pilots contacted the adjacent radar area at LaGuardia Airport and were able to talk to our traffic controllers there. So it was that flexibility, that professionalism, that creativity to think about what else can we do in these 90 seconds that can help us keep on moving. You've been in those towers. As I mentioned, you were in one of those towers, head of air traffic control for the FAA's New York Center on 9-11.

Tell me a little bit about the pressures that air traffic controllers face on a day-to-day basis. Controllers have to make quick, effective, efficient and safe decisions in moments. There is no time to look at alternatives, ponder results. Controllers have to assimilate all the information that is being displayed on their radar monitors or looking out the window in their traffic control tower

and perform a orchestrated movement of aircraft where you're actually developing a mental model and then projecting that model in the future and then coming up with a plan and then going back and monitoring to ensure that your plan is effective and everybody is following it. Do you understand why those people who are in control of Newark when the screens went dead, a lot of them just walked off the job. They left on stress leave because of what they were dealing with.

Yeah. I wouldn't characterize it as walking off the job. Why? They took stress leave. Right. Absolutely. Um, it's a traumatic event and to have to be a part of that is, can be very, very stressful.

There is a nationwide shortage of air can be very, very stressful. There is a nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers in the United States. The FAA says it's short of about 3,000 controllers. 90% of US airport towers apparently are understaffed. In Newark itself, only you need 16 controllers that are available for call every single day, and that's fewer than half that would actually be needed to cover all of the different shifts there.

Why is there this shortage? The shortage has occurred for two reasons. One is that whenever there is a U.S. government shutdown due to either a lack of a budget or a lack of a congressional authorization, then the FAA has to stop all hiring and all training of air traffic controllers. However, when the government is shut down, you still have controllers who are tritting out mainly through retirement or aging out due to the men's retirement age.

So you have those occurring over a decade or more. And then when we had the pandemic, the FAA for a year couldn't hire and train their travel controllers. So that exacerbated a preexisting shortage. And that leaves the FAA where they are now with 3000 controllers short. How is that impacting flight safety?

The Federal Aviation Administration, and in close cooperation with NAV Canada, they work to throttle down the system whenever there is any shortages in terms of staffing. They can reroute aircraft or they can put in what's known as traffic management initiatives to slow down the traffic in those areas so that safety is not compromised in any way, but efficiency is and it results in delays. I think one of the things that people would think of though is, and again, and I understand that this is still being investigated, but that

fatal crash at Reagan national airport in January, there've been a number of near misses as well. And people think if there aren't enough controllers in the tower, mistakes, what you talked about, making those decisions in real time with lives at stake that mistakes can happen. Do you think staffing shortages have played a role in incidents like that? in real time with lives at stake that mistakes can happen. Do you think staffing shortages have played a role

in incidents like that? No, I don't believe that staffing has contributed to any degradation of safety across the U.S. National Airspace System. I think what the staffing contributes to is that lack of efficiency and then the resulting delays. Later today, the U.S. Transportation Secretary is going to announce what is, in his words, a whole new air traffic control system.

The US President put out on social media this morning, I will fix the air traffic problems. What will fix those problems? Certainly a detailed look at the state of infrastructure and technology within the U.S. aviation transportation system is warranted. One of the things I read is that some towers are still using computers with floppy disks, for example. I would have to counter that and say all the controller facing technology in the United States air traffic system

is state of the art. It's the backroom technology that really has the need to be evaluated and updated. Do you think people, I have to let you go, but do you think one of the reasons why the story gets so much attention is because when we fly, we turn ourselves over to a number of different things.

The technology, the pilots, the people who are there taking care of us and ensuring that we're safe, but also the fact that those in the towers know where we are at all times. Do you think people should feel safe to fly in the wake of a story like this? I would ask listeners to consider the fact that aviation remains the safest form of transportation in Canada and the United States. And the greatest risk you're going to take when you're flying someplace is getting into a car and

either Uber or driving to the airport. There's a thousand times more risk that you will be involved in a fatal accident in a car than you are in an aircraft. So go ahead. Yeah, no, I was just really glad to talk to you. I'm going to have to leave it there, but I think that's a really good point.

And, and your insight in this is fascinating, having been there, but also as I say, training that next generation. Thank you very much for joining us this morning. Thank you. It's a pleasure being on. Have a good day. And you, Michael McCormick is a former air traffic

controller and trains, as I said, air traffic controllers, that next generation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. Hey there I'm David Common if you're like me there are things you love about living in the GTA and things that drive you absolutely crazy. Every day on This is Toronto we connect you to what matters most about life in the GTA the news you got to know and the conversations your friends will be talking about. Whether you listen on a run through your neighbourhood or while sitting in the parking lot that is the 401, check

out This Is Toronto, wherever you get your podcasts. We're talking about what's happening in the United States, but there's also a shortage of air traffic controllers in this country. Last month, the Vancouver airport saw several days of widespread delays. NavCanada, which owns and operates Canada's civil air navigation system, said the delay was because of a shortage of air traffic controllers. John Gradek is an aviation expert, professor in the aviation management program at McGill

University. John, good morning to you. Good morning, Matt. How significant is the shortage of air traffic controllers in this country? It is not as bad as it is south of the border. I think that we've had NAVCAN take some initiatives over the last 12 to 18 months to kind of address

the need for replacement controllers that had either retired or were reduced when we had COVID, there's about a thousand short at this point in time. But there are plans afoot to try to close that gap. It'll take a few years to get there, but NAVCAN has expressed the opinion that everything is under control. There have, there are temporary shortages of staff, as you saw in Vancouver, but that is something that Navcan is saying

that is well managed at this point. Why are we seeing that shortage? Oh, we're seeing that shortage because of the fact that we have retirements in air traffic controller roles. You know, the number of people that have left air traffic control over the last decade has been significant and that has been a question of going through COVID and going through normal retirements. through normal retirements and you know normally people leave these jobs for for other jobs and so there is a worldwide demand for air traffic controllers. I know at this point, Amir, you see the Australian air traffic control system actively recruiting North American controllers to to operate

the Australian system. So there's a worldwide effort to in fact increase the number of controllers to meet the demand that is being created for aerospace by the, uh, by the airlines. And what's happened in Canada over the last two or three years is that the industry, the airline industry has in fact recovered, um, significantly. There, reached the 2019 flight levels and even gone beyond that level over the last couple of months and that stressed out the supporting systems both at the airports as well as at air traffic controllers to be able to manage

as well as at air traffic controllers to be able to manage that amount of flying. So there is a lot of pressure put on NAVCAN to be able to handle additional flying. We asked to speak with someone at NAVCAN. This is the organization that oversees air traffic controllers. They weren't available for an interview. They sent us a statement in which in part it reads, you know, don't compare the United States and Canada when it comes to air traffic management systems. But they also said that they're taking, to your

point, a number of steps to address the shortage of air traffic controllers, including in their words, an extensive recruitment process, very competitive pay and hiring experienced air traffic controllers. This is a job that pays you while you're training $100,000 a year, roughly is the starting salary, but it comes with an awful lot of stress. As you understand it,

why is it so hard to get people to do this job? Oh, I think that, as you mentioned, it takes a certain level of competency, a certain level of skills, and a certain personal characteristic to be able to do the controller's job. As Mike mentioned to you earlier, this is not a job for the faint of heart.

You have to be able to have what I call spatial recognition of what's going on around you. You're looking at screens and talking to radios, the screens show everything in two dimensions. In your mind, you have to work in three and sometimes four dimensions to be able to in fact understand the area and the territory that you're looking to to oversee. So you know it's not everybody that can do that. There's very you know it takes a lot of time to train an air traffic controller. People that are in training sometimes don't make the cut. So for every hundred people that are going into the program, NAVCAN says only about 40 make it.

Wow. So there's a lot of people that fall by the wayside because of the standards and because of the training regimen that our friends at NAFCAN have. In the meantime, what kind of pressure does a shortage like that put on the folks who are in the towers working as our traffic controllers, if we're a thousand short in this country?

Well, I think what Mike said is really important. I think that what's happening in North America and you know we're not as bad as the US but we still have stresses is that what you saw happen in Vancouver is the reaction by the air traffic control system. That the system will slow things down if there aren't enough people there the system will slow things down such that it may create delays but it's going to be safer. It, it's safe. It's safe. You know, we're not compromising safety.

We're not compromising, you know, the ability for the controllers to manage the airspace that they have in front of them, because the system will reduce the workload to, in fact, match the staffing levels that are in place at any one point in time. Just before I let you go, I mean, this is the question that I asked Michael. If somebody's listening and they hear about a story like this, one of the reasons it gets a lot of attention is because it plays into some of their worst fears about flying.

His point was you're more likely to get injured, you know, walking down the stairs on your way to the airport than you are when you're in the plane. What would you say to somebody who's worried that their next flight isn't safe? Oh, I don't think there's any compromise in safety. I think that, you know, like I said, the system, however you want to define the system, manages

the demand on the controllers to the point where the controller is in control. And there isn't a situation where things have reached a point where you have risk, uh, in terms of flight safety. So until, until, until the screens go blank. Well, you know, but there's, there are procedures, there are procedures in place when the screens go

blank and I think Mike was very, uh, you know, very comprehensive in talking about those procedures. Uh, pilots are part of that equation and there's other air traffic control systems available in surrounding areas that will probably give you a level of safety that is second to none. So I think that, yeah, will Canadian screens go down? Will Canadian screens go black? Chances are very minimal, but it could happen.

But I think we have a system in place and practices and procedures in place to ensure the safety of our air traveling public. John, good to talk to you as always. Thank you very much. Take care, Matt, and have a good day. And you, John Gradek, is a professor of aviation management at McGill University. He was in Montreal.