Staffing issues cause ground delay for arrivals at Newark Airport
NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) -- There is a ground delay at Newark Airport due to staffing issues Sunday morning.
The ground delay is causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 1 hour and 1 minute.
According to Flight Aware, 17 flights have been canceled in the last 24 hours.
Newark had been plagued with staffing and equipment problems for months.
In May, an outage at Newark caused ATC computer screens to go dark for roughly 60 to 90 seconds and prevented controllers from talking to aircraft during that time, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the incident. As a result, the FAA briefly halted all departures to the airport.
Following the outage, several controllers went on medical leave, calling the experience a traumatic event. The controllers are entitled to at least 45 days away from the job and must be evaluated by a doctor before they can return to work.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reduced the number of flights in and out of the Newark Liberty International Airport for several weeks as the airport coped with equipment and staffing struggles.
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