Newark Airport Chaos Triggers Call for Aviation System Fix

A temporary radar outage at Newark International Airport last week left air traffic controllers unable to see or speak to pilots for 30 seconds—sparking alarm among aviation workers, frequent flyers, and federal officials alike. On The Ingraham Angle, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy joined Laura to address the growing concerns and offered a sobering assessment: “It’s a sign that we have a frail system in place, and it has to be fixed.”

According to Duffy, the incident was caused by the failure of both the primary and backup communication lines—an alarming reality in one of the nation’s busiest air corridors. While no planes were in immediate danger thanks to onboard GPS systems, the loss of contact raised serious safety questions.

“The infrastructure hasn’t been updated in 30, 40 years,” Duffy said. “This should have been dealt with in the last administration. They did nothing.”

Newark Delays and a “White Paint on the Windshield” Moment

In response to the outage, flights in and out of Newark are now being slowed to prevent further strain on the outdated system. Duffy compared it to a driver suddenly losing vision on the highway: “If you’re driving at 70 miles an hour and get white paint on your windshield, you slow down.”

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He confirmed that United Airlines has reduced its departures from Newark, and that his office is working with all major carriers at the airport to coordinate efforts and minimize further disruption. “What you don’t want is to go to the airport and have a five-hour delay and then a cancelation,” he said.

While Laura didn’t hold back on her long-standing disdain for Newark Airport—“It’s always delayed”—Duffy acknowledged that he flies out of the airport frequently and agreed there’s major work to be done.

VIP Mystery Raises New Questions

The Newark outage wasn’t the only concern discussed. Duffy also confirmed that the Army had paused all helicopter flights near Washington, D.C. after a Black Hawk helicopter forced two commercial flights to abort their landings near the Pentagon. The helicopter, reportedly on a “scenic route” for a VIP, breached required airspace separation protocols.

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“Who do these generals think they are, that they have to take helicopters to go to meetings?” Duffy asked. “The top brass at the White House take a suburban or a Tesla. Why is a two-star flying a Black Hawk into restricted airspace?”

Both the FAA and the Department of Defense have yet to reveal the identity of the VIP on board—a lack of transparency that Duffy said only fuels suspicion.

“They’ve promised radical transparency. They should tell us who’s qualified to take a helicopter out of the Pentagon.”

A New Air Traffic Control System Is Coming

Despite the setbacks, Duffy closed with a major announcement: the administration will unveil a sweeping modernization plan on Thursday. This includes rebuilding America’s air traffic control system with new telecom, radar, and safety infrastructure—plus a surge in newly trained air traffic controllers.

“This has been a problem decades in the making—and we’re going to fix it,” Duffy promised. “Donald Trump loves the airspace. He talks about airplanes. He’s bought into the plan.”

Laura closed the segment with one final request: “We want to know who the VIP is.” Duffy replied with a grin, “So do I.”

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