The Federal Aviation Administration halted flights at busy East Coast airports in New York, Philadelphia and Boston on Monday (September 21, 2026), saying a fiber cable was accidentally cut at a construction site in New Jersey, U.S.A.
It was not clear when the ground stops at the New York-area airports would be lifted. Newark is a major United Airlines hub, while Philadelphia is an American Airlines hub. The issue has also forced the diversion of a number of flights to other airports.
FlightAware, a flight-tracking site, said more than 600 flights at Newark and Philadelphia, or more than 20%, had been delayed at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control. Flightradar24, a flight-tracking site, said flights were being delayed by an average of 112 minutes at Newark. Last year, Congress approved $12.5 billion to address the aging air traffic control system and boost controller hiring following decades of complaints over airport congestion and flight delays and a series of technology issues in recent years.
He said a new circuit would be operational imminently. The FAA said last year a telecommunications outage impacted communications and radar displays at Philadelphia TRACON.
