Total COLLAPSE! What’s Happening at Newark AirPort?!

0:00 - Imagine you're about to board a flight. Your bags are packed, your ticket in hand, and you're at the airport ready to go, possibly with a connection flight to make as well. But then, just before departure, an announcement comes over the PA saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, due to an air traffic control issue, your flight has been severely delayed. For thousands of travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport in April and in May 2025, this wasn't just an announcement. It was a reality. But what actually happened at Newark and why did it cause so much chaos? In this video, I will explain the technology failures that brought Newark to a standstill, why the problem is much bigger than just one airport, and why the entire US air travel system

0:48 is now at risk of similar failures. Stay tuned. So, on the 28th of April 2025, Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the United States, plunged into total chaos. Flights were delayed, cancelled or left circling in holding patterns, passengers crammed into overcrowded terminals, staring at departure boards that showed endless delays, some that would take a full week to finally clear. The airlines scrambled to rebook their passengers while airline dispatchers worked to contain the damage, but this wasn't just another bad day caused by weather or a minor mechanical breakdown. Instead, this was a full blown systems failure,

1:35 a cascade of technological and staffing breakdowns that exposed just how fragile one of America's key aviation hubs had become. At the heart of this crisis was a series of catastrophic outages at the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Controller, or TRACON, the facility now responsible for managing the airspace over Newark. But you might ask here, why are Philadelphia controllers managing airspace around Newark? Well, keep that question in mind. I'll get back to it soon. For now, you just need to understand that TRACON facilities are the nerve centers of air traffic control, guiding aircraft as they approach or depart major airports, but in April, the technology

2:21 that supported this critical function simply just failed. The most dramatic failures were in radar and radio communications. You see, when the air traffic control systems are fully operational, controllers can obviously see the precise location of every aircraft in their airspace along with their altitude, speed, heading and loads of other information. Obviously, they can also communicate with the pilots using multiple redundant radio frequencies, but during the April and May outages, the radar screens suddenly went dark and the radio frequencies went silent. In some cases, even the emergency backup radios failed, leaving controllers completely unable to speak with the pilots.

3:08 That's an incredible stressful scenario for both pilots and air traffic controllers, whether and where it would happen, but now it hit one of the busiest airspaces in the world. Now we pilots in these situations have very clear instructions on what to do. If we lose radio contact with the controller we are talking to, we normally try the other radio or revert back to the previous frequency, who will then help assign us with a new controller or facility in order to facilitate a potential diversion. If our own radios would fail on board, we follow established loss of comm procedures, but that was obviously not the issue here. Instead, I imagine that it must have been a flurry of activity of the wider controller frequencies

3:53 until everything was sorted out. This is a situation when it's really, really good to have a little bit of extra fuel with you on board. But why did it happen? Well, the immediate cause was a combination of outdated infrastructure, neglected maintenance and the flawed relocation plan. To start with, the radar systems at the Philadelphia TRACON, which controls Newark's airspace, still rely heavily on decades old technology. As we mentioned earlier, the FAA had relocated Newark's approach controller from the New York TRACON facility on Long Island to Philadelphia back in 2024. And the idea was to address staffing and cultural issues at the New York site, but instead it simply shifted

4:40 the problems rather than solving them. Also, crucially, instead of installing a dedicated robust fiber optic network, the FAA chose to connect Philadelphia to Newark using an older copper wire data feed, essentially, a 130-mile or 210-kilometers-long data umbilical cord linking one of the busiest airspaces in America to its control center, over a fragile outdated connection. This setup was a known risk. Months before the crisis, FAA engineers had flagged a bandwidth issue on this very feed, warning that it could become a problem. And as it turned out, those fears weren't just theoretical.

5:26 On the 27th of August 2024, just before Labor Day in the US, Newark Sector, then freshly moved to Philadelphia, suffered a full radar outage, and three more radar failures followed on September 2nd. Each of these failures was then traced back to latency and signal integrity issues on that same outdated copper line. And the controllers union, NATCA, had warned that the equipment and procedures might not be ready for such a complex relocation, but those warnings were just ignored. Rather than fixing the root problem, the FAA instead relied on stop gap measures, hoping that redundant lines would be enough to maintain stability. But as the more recent outages showed,

6:13 those redundancies were simply not enough. Using a remote feed for key radar data in such a busy airspace is both unusual and risky, yet it was the only option the FAA could afford at the time, given their tight budget and chronic underfunding. But the technical failure was just one part of the story. The human element then turned a bad situation into a crisis. You see, even before the first outages, the Philadelphia TRACON was already operating below the recommended number of traffic controllers. At the time of the relocation, only 24 of the 33 Newark Area Controllers agreed to move to Philadelphia, leaving the new facility understaffed from day one. Overall staffing for Newark's airspace

6:59 was estimated at just 52% of the needed level, 33 certified controllers around 63 authorized positions. For context, the FAA considers 85% staffing, which would be 54 controllers in this case, healthy. And when we are on the subject of health, by the way, how is your digital hygiene doing? Most of us have no idea how exposed our lives have become, nor how much we are at risk when it comes to cybercriminality. My team and I have first-hand knowledge of this, since our Facebook page got hacked a few years ago, so we are now super happy to have NordVPN as our long-term sponsor. Aside from letting you access news and your favorite content

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8:33 Right now, NordVPN is offering you, my viewers, a great deal. If you scan this QR code with your camera or go to nordvpn.com/mentournow, you will get four extra months when you sign up for the two-year deal. And you don't really risk anything by trying it out, since Nord always gives you a 30-day money-back guarantee. Thank you so much, Nord, for supporting our content. Now, let's continue with the story. When the April outage struck, the stress levels in the Philadelphia TRACON therefore skyrocketed. Controllers who were on duty during the outages found the experience understandably completely overwhelming. Panic and confusion spread, and once the immediate crisis was over,

9:19 several controllers filed for something called trauma leave, citing the experience as a psychologically damaging event. Now, under American Federal Law, specifically the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, FECA, the air traffic controllers are entitled to trauma leave if they experience a traumatic event on the job, and in this case, the sudden loss of radar and radio communication met that threshold. Controllers who were too shaken to continue working were allowed to take paid time off without it being counted as sick leave or vacation, but for the Philadelphia TRACON, this created an even bigger crisis, where an already understaffed facility lost even more controllers at the worst possible time.

10:06 United Airlines, the largest operator at Newark, immediately cut flights with CEO Scott Kirby publicly blaming the FAA and the controller shortage for making the airport unsustainable. Other airlines followed suit, and passengers soon found themselves stranded as flight cancellations just snowballed. Kirby said that a fifth of the controllers had walked off the job, which is frankly misleading and quite insulting to controllers that were doing the absolute best in what is, under the best of circumstances, one of the most stressful, high stakes job, not just in aviation, but anywhere in the world. But why did United CEO react so strongly then? And is this Newark issue something unique

10:51 to that particular airport? Well, April's Newark chaos wasn't an isolated incident. In fact, while we were researching this story, it happened again on the morning of May the 9th, with Newark's controllers losing their connection for 90 seconds. But fortunately, this time, the outage happened at 4:00am, a low traffic time. These failures are just the most visible symptom of a systematic crisis in American air traffic control, a crisis fueled by underfunding, outdated technology and a shortage of skilled controllers. The FAA's budget has struggled to keep up with the demands of a growing air travel industry, and when a crisis then struck, the whole system buckled.

11:38 The FAA has promised a long-term fix, fully integrating Newark's radar into Philadelphia's modern radar system called the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System, or STARS. But insiders estimate that such a migration will take five years to complete, so what will be done until then, and why is it so critical, especially for United Airlines? Well, Newark Liberty International Airport isn't just any airport. It's a fortress hub for United Airlines. A fortress hub means that one airline dominates nearly all the flights, gates and market share. And at Newark, United controls around 70% of all flights, meaning that it's basically the primary carrier for that airport with a broad margin.

12:27 This is part of United's deliberate strategy, because concentrating flights at a single hub allows them to operate a powerful hub and spoke network. Smaller regional flights feed into Newark, connecting passengers to international and long-haul destinations, all on United Metal. When everything works, fortress hubs are a gold mine. United can control prices, schedule flights to maximize connections and fill its planes with connecting passengers. A traveler from a smaller city like Albany or Buffalo can connect to Newark to anywhere in Europe, all with one single booking, which is both efficient for United and convenient for the passengers. Well, until something goes wrong, that is.

13:13 And on April the 27th, something went very, very wrong. When the ATC system failed, United's entire operation began to unravel. The airline immediately became the hardest hit, because it runs the vast majority of flights at that airport. With ATC struggling to manage traffic safely, United was forced to cancel 35 round-trip flights per day, roughly 10% of its entire schedule. But because United is so dominant at Newark, these cancellations then created a ripple effect across its entire network. Passengers were stranded with a few alternatives. If a United flight was cancelled, switching to another airline wasn't an option for most people

14:00 since other airlines like Delta or American have only a minimal presence at Newark. For passengers, this meant long waits in customer service lines, missed connections and general confusion and, of course, frustration. This is, of course, the dark side of a fortress hub. When an airline dominates an airport, its problems become everyone's problems. United's Newark issues didn't just stay in New Jersey, they spread across the entire country. Flights connecting to Newark were delayed, passengers missed their connections to Europe. Crews and aircraft were displaced, creating further delays at other airports. Fortress hubs amplified disruption because they lacked flexibility. At a more balanced airport like Los Angeles

14:48 or Chicago O'Hare, a single airline's problems would be cushioned by the presence of other major carriers that could take up the slack. But at a fortress hub, if the dominant airline fails, everything fails. United's use of a banking model where dozens of flights arrive and depart within short windows only made things even worse. When delays started stacking up, the carefully timed waves of arrivals and departures soon turned into chaos. But it is important to remember here that other US airlines have fortress hubs too, and any of them could face a similar crisis. Delta has a fortress hub at Atlanta, the busiest airport in the world,

15:33 where it controls over 70% of the flights. And American Airlines has a similarly dominant position at Dallas Fort Worth, where it accounts for over 65% of the flights. So if a critical system outage or ATC staffing issues would strike these hubs, Delta or American will suffer just as badly as United did at Newark. Except that Newark sits within the already congested New York airspace, which is shared with JFK and LaGuardia. This means Newark's air traffic controllers are already juggling some of the most complex traffic in the country. So this ATC outage didn't just disrupt Newark, it risked spilling over into the broader New York airspace, compounding the chaos.

16:19 And I'm sure that it actually did with several diversions. United's dominance at Newark also means that it's stuck in a higher risk position. Even as United cut flights in May of 2025, Kirby publicly blamed the FAA and called for the agency to reinstate slot controls at Newark. Slot controls would limit the number of flights any airline could operate, making it easier to avoid congestion. But this is essentially admitting defeat. It means acknowledging that Newark, as it currently operates, cannot handle United's schedule without breaking down. In the end, Newark's status as a fortress hub meant that United's fortunes were directly tied to the airport's performance. When the ATC system faltered,

17:06 United's network melted down and their reputation took a hit. For passengers, the Newark ATC breakdown became a nightmare. When ATC cut arrivals and departure to protect safety, delays spiraled out of control. By the following morning, Newark had already logged at least 42 flight cancellations and 46 delays. And over the next week, the chaos just continued. Newark quickly earned the title of the world's most delayed airport, with departure delays stretching into several hours. Like I mentioned before, the ripple effects went far beyond just Newark. United's Trans-Atlantic flights were also disrupted, stranding international travelers. Delays in Newark meant delayed departures

17:52 in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas as planes and crews were stuck and passengers, missed their connections or found themselves rebooked on flights days later or simply gave up and drove to other airports. United did issue travel waivers, allowing customers to change their flights without fees, but to many this was little help since their alternatives were so limited. Now this meltdown was not the fault of United, nor is this in any way unique to them. Similar force majeure events have, in the last couple of years, affected everyone from Spirit to Southwest and I've covered them in other videos on this channel. Last year, Delta's operations also grounded to a halt for days as a result of the CrowdStrike outage.

18:41 In the end, the Newark meltdown became a perfect example of how a fortress hub's strengths, its dominance and efficiency in good times can become a nightmare in bad times. When a fortress hub breaks, it basically breaks everything. So what is the FAA doing about this? Well, in the short term, the FAA scrambled to shore up Newark's ATC operations. Recognizing a critical staffing shortfall, it called in experienced air traffic control supervisors from across the country to work directly in the Philadelphia TRACON, which now manages Newark's airspace. These veteran controllers provided a temporary boost, but the underlying staffing shortage still remains.

19:27 On the technology side, the FAA installed three new high bandwidth telecommunication links to provide backup to the outdated copper wiring that failed, and it also accelerated plans to replace this copper network with modern fiber optic lines. For safety, the FAA then also capped Newark's arrival rate, which limits how many planes can land per hour to prevent overload. This artificially capped the number of flights, but it also stabilized operations. Although, again, a second outage in early May happened in the early morning hours where traffic was low, showing that this isn't simply a traffic volume problem. Then, on the 8th of May, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced

20:12 a multi-billion dollar initiative to overhaul the nation's ATC networks, including upgrading radar systems, replacing outdated copper lines with fiber and satellite-based communications, and expanding the next-gen ATC system, which uses satellite tracking for more accurate, resilient flight management. The FAA also plans to increase automation, allowing one center to take over another's airspace in an emergency. Duffy declared that the existing system was not worth saving, comparing it to a flip phone in a smartphone world. Obviously, staffing is another critical focus. The FAA is now ramping up hiring, but training a new air traffic controller takes years

20:58 as I've mentioned before, and to bridge the gap, the agency is offering overtime and retention bonuses to keep experienced controllers on the job, and is actively recruiting former military and civilian controllers to fill critical roles more quickly. One immediate change could be making Newark a fully slot-controlled airport, like JFK or LaGuardia is. You see, slot-controlled airports are what we call Level 3 airports, meaning that regulators believe that the demand for flights is higher than the airport can reasonably accommodate. So basically what they do is they cap the number of takeoffs and landings per day, and those movement slots are then assigned to the airlines. Because these Level 3 airports tend

21:44 to be used for high-demand routes, these slots are precious commodities. London's Heathrow, for example, is a heavily slot-limited airport. If you've ever wondered why there are so many Airbus A380s flying in and out of London, it's because the airlines are trying to meet capacity needs without having to pay for more flights. Going back to Newark, in 2016 the FAA actually downgraded it to a Level 2 airport, removing all of these slot restrictions and therefore, allowing airlines to be responsible for keeping capacity under control with their own schedules. A move back to a Level 3 status would mean a more tightly-regulated schedule, which might mean fewer flights or flights more spread out throughout the day,

22:30 but this would also mean more reliable and predictable operations. United Airlines actually supports this move, as it would prevent other airlines from adding flights that could worsen congestion, and, of course, slot restrictions would also limit how much other airlines could compete with United, which is something that's worth keeping in mind. But even these solutions may not be enough without a consistent funding commitment for US air traffic control. The FAA's outdated technology and understaffing are national problems, not just Newark's. Until the FAA gets the resources to modernize and staff properly, other airports could experience similar meltdowns, so what will all of this mean for you guys then?

23:19 Well, unfortunately, it means that as a passenger, you're likely to see more delays, more cancellations and more chaos in the months and years to come, before the system is completely updated. If you're flying out of a fortress hub like Newark, Atlanta, Charlotte or Miami, you are a lot more at risk of sudden delays, because these are high traffic airports where even a small disruption can spiral out of control. It also means that you should prepare for the unexpected. So make sure that you have travel insurance that covers delays, consider booking direct flights instead of connections if it is at all possible, and also try to book flights departing early in the day, as delays tend to stack up

24:05 and worsen throughout each day's schedules. But what do you think? Should the FAA be given more funding to fix the system? Should airlines like United rethink how they concentrate their operations around big hubs like Newark, and most importantly, how would you prepare to handle a flight delay caused by outages like these? Let me know in the comments here below, and if you want to learn more about how global aviation really works, don't forget to subscribe to the channel. And, of course, if you like what we do here on Mentour and want to support us, then scan this QR code or go to patreon.com/join/mentourpilot. There, you can join my hangouts, which I do on regular intervals every month, and you will also get to see

24:51 all my videos before anyone else. Have an absolutely fantastic day wherever you are, and I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.