Miles O’Brien:
Well, Geoff, it really boils down to a perfect storm.
What you have at the root of it is a very antiquated system, which the FAA has now admitted, with some technology going back really to the ’50s, copper wire, floppy disks, very old technology. You have a chronic staffing problem among air traffic controllers. And, at Newark, since the middle of April, they have had a major reconstruction, rebuilding project on one of their big runways.
All of that combined together prompted the FAA to try to augment its staffing by sending some controllers in some positions to Philadelphia. That required a communication link, of course, with the radars and the VHF radios. And when those systems did not work, some real trouble started to begin. And that is what led to the cascade of effects that we’re seeing right now.
