Schumer calls on Transportation Secretary Duffy to 'immediately fix' Newark Airport situation

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer D-N Y is demanding U S Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at once fix the situation at Newark Airport following a stretch of passage mishaps and chaos When people hear about radar screens just going dark traffic controllers who cannot talk to planes machinery that is seemingly working no better than tin cans they do not think this is a story about the Trump administration s FAA but that is what is so scary this story is real and this story is dangerous This situation is also unacceptable Schumer commented in a announcement on Sunday I have communicated this past week with the FAA and I feel no better in the modern day than a week ago about the state of aviation safety since this administration took the controls at FAA As I reported last week Newark is a harbinger If this dangerous situation can happen in the metro region imagine what might happen in places where there is less scrutiny This really makes you worry HAKEEM JEFFRIES BLAMES TRUMP FOR NEWARK AIRPORT CHAOS ACCUSES WHITE HOUSE OF 'BREAKING THE FAA'On Thursday more than flights in and out of Newark were delayed and at least others were canceled and chaos followed throughout the weekend Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed the situation on poor hardware in an X post NEWARK AIRPORT DISRUPTIONS LEAVE AIRLINE FLYERS SCRAMBLING AS EXPERTS SHARE TIPS FOR NOT BEING 'STRANDED' The device that we are using is old That s what is causing the outages and delays we are seeing at Newark Duffy wrote Schumer stated there have been an average of arrival cancellations per day since mid-April at Newark according to the FAA with the number of delays increasing throughout the day from an average of five in the mornings to by the evening They tend to last to minutes on average reports say LAWMAKERS REACT TO NEWARK AIRPORT CHAOS YOUR FAMILY DESERVES TO KNOW YOU LL BE SAFE'On Sunday Schumer explained Duffy must put Newark first in line for fixes he explained would be made to the nation s ATC systems He also gave specific details about the work that demands to be done including installing a DIRECT fiber-optic telco line between Newark Airport and Philadelphia terminal radar approach control center no more indirect runaround Schumer called for a modernized direct connection and new computers to analyze and display transmitted figures In a lengthy report obtained by Fox News and Fox Business the FAA acknowledged that several major airlines are facing ongoing flight disruptions at New Jersey's Newark-Liberty International Airport as the facility contends with ongoing staffing and system issues Last week air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration FAA facility in Philadelphia lost radar and radio signals while directing planes to Newark for nearly seconds causing considerable delays and flight cancellations that remain ongoing the comment continued We are working to ensure the current telecommunications equipment is more reliable in the New York area by establishing a more resilient and redundant configuration with the local exchange carriers In addition we are updating our automation system to improve resiliency CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPWhen reached by Fox News Digital a representative for Duffy pointed to an interview the secretary gave earlier in the day to FOX Business' The Evening Edit I love Democrats who are now all concerned about air traffic control Duffy revealed They spent trillion in the Biden-Buttigieg era trillion on American infrastructure and they didn't spend anything on air traffic control and they knew it was getting old and needed a massive rebuild They didn't do it Now they're complaining during the Trump administration we're the ones that are Fox News Digital's Andrea Margolis and Charles Creitz contributed to this account