NEW YORK/PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 21, 2026 / A major telecommunications failure at a Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control facility disrupted thousands of flights across the U.S. Northeast on Monday after a critical fiber-optic cable in New Jersey was accidentally severed during construction work.

The disruption affected some of the region’s busiest airports, including Newark Liberty International, John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia, Philadelphia International and Teterboro, prompting the FAA to impose ground stops, restrict arrivals and slow departures at different points during the day.

More than 5,600 flights nationwide were disrupted, including about 1,200 in the New York area, as delays, cancellations and diversions spread through the tightly connected U.S. aviation network.

Officials traced the problem to the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control facility, or TRACON, which manages aircraft approaching and departing several airports in the region. According to officials, a primary telecommunications circuit failed and a backup fiber-optic connection that could have provided redundancy had also been severed.

Verizon said construction crews working near an Amtrak rail line in New Jersey dug up and cut one of its fiber cables. The company emphasized that its own employees were not responsible for the damage and said crews were working with partners to restore connectivity.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said an Amtrak construction crew had accidentally cut the fiber line and described the disruption as further evidence of the need to modernize aging U.S. air traffic control infrastructure.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said repairs to the damaged fiber connection could take up to 13 hours, although limited operations resumed at some airports as controllers worked with available communications systems.

The timing of the outage added to the disruption because New York is receiving presidents, prime ministers, diplomats and delegations for the United Nations General Assembly, increasing international air traffic around the metropolitan area.

The incident also revived concerns about the resilience of the air traffic control network serving Newark and the New York region. The FAA had previously announced new high-bandwidth fiber connections, backup systems and other upgrades following communications failures affecting Newark operations in 2025.

While JFK, LaGuardia, Philadelphia and other airports gradually resumed some operations Monday, delays and cancellations continued, and the FAA advised passengers to check directly with their airlines before traveling to the airport.