Sean Duffy (00:01):
Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden did nothing to fix the system that they knew was broken. And so I want to lay out how we got here, what's going on in Newark, and what our plan is to actually fix it under this Trump administration, who, by the way, fixes problems, doesn't cause problems. So how we got here, in July of 2024, the Biden-Buttigieg FAA moved control of the New York Newark airspace from New York, or also known as N90 to Philadelphia Tower, or the Philadelphia TRACON as part of the move the STARS system that processes radar data for Newark remained based in New York, so they didn't move it from New York down to Philly, where the controllers would be. Redundant and diverse telecommunication line feeds this data from New York to Philadelphia TRACON, where controllers handle New York arrivals and departures.
(00:54)
The Biden-Buttigieg FAA bungled this move without properly hardening the telecom lines, feeding the data, which was already well known to be air prone. Without addressing the underlying infrastructure, they added more risk to the system. In fact, there were issues in October and November under Biden and Buttigieg that would've highlighted to the prior administration that the underlying hardware would continue to cause problems. That along with our overall neglect of our whole aviation system and the aging issues that we've highlighted over the course of the last several weeks, we're clear on mistakes of their administration. So let's talk about where we are now. What's going on in Newark? So a trio of recent equipment issues that Philadelphia on April 28th, May 9th and May 11th, affecting communication radar displays has highlighted the antiquated nature of the nation's air traffic control system, which is still using copper wires and other outdated technology.
(02:02)
The incidents on April 28th and May 9th resulted in very brief outages that impacted the STARS radar data displays going down. The most serious of these outages lasted approximately 30 seconds. This includes the STARS radar data displays going down again for 30 seconds. The STARS displays took approximately 60 seconds then to reboot and come back online. So there's been some discrepancy, 30 seconds versus 90 seconds. The outage was 30 seconds, but then the displays took another minute to boot. That's where you get 30 and 90 seconds, but the telecom was out for 30 seconds. The outage also interrupted the phone line and radio frequencies for a very short period, this is how controllers talk to pilots.
(02:51)
Radio frequency connections to phone lines via voice switches are the primary way those controllers do talk to pilots. These frequencies returned almost immediately, which is why you heard pilots actually telling airplanes that they couldn't see them with the radar. They were able to talk to the airplanes, but couldn't see the radars or the airplanes on their scopes. These issues along with staffing shortages at Philadelphia and runway construction at Newark have led to the delays for passengers. So in response, on Friday night, the FAA implemented a software update to prevent future outages. The software patch was successful and our redundant lines are now both working. We know this because on Sunday there was an outage, you all reported on that. And the outage was the main line went down, but the redundant line did stand up, meaning our patch, our fix worked.
(03:49)
Now, because of that, the controllers who had seen this, the prior two times when they saw the main line go down, they were concerned even though they could see airplanes and talk to airplanes out of an abundance of caution, they actually shut down the airspace for 45 minutes. But we still had our scopes and our telecom functioning on Sunday morning. So it's important to note that, and we're going to talk about this in a little bit, this system is so old that even if you have high-speed fiber information coming in to a TRACON or a tower, the equipment that we use is so old, the information has to be slowed down. It comes in too fast. It has to go at the speed of copper wires. So again, we have two issues, the redundant or the reliability of the telecom, but also the old equipment that we're using paired together are causing a lot of issues in the system.
(04:49)
So let's talk about what the Trump administration is doing moving forward to fix the problems that were left to us from the Biden-Buttigieg administration. Now, while these temporary software fixes that I mentioned earlier that worked on Sunday morning should prevent future outages, the core issue is the telecommunication lines. Here's what we're doing to fix the telecom. One, I'll be requesting an OIG investigation into the failures of the last administration and the decisions that were made to move the TRACON from N90 in New York down to Philadelphia, and the work that was done to plan for this move and making sure that the lines were hardened. The FAA today is assembling a tiger team of experts to fully fast-track the fixes that we've identified need to be done to make sure this works.
(05:40)
The FAA has replaced copper lines with fiber lines at Newark, JFK, and LaGuardia. That work is done, it was done in the last couple of weeks. However, it's going to take another week or two to be testing those two lines before we flip the switch and make them live. Oh yes, we're going to flip that. It is one to two weeks. It's going to actually happen, we hope at the end of May. We have spoken with the heads of Verizon and L3Harris to understand why the telecom issues persist and how we can expedite those fixes. And again, we work with L3Harris as our contractor, and Verizon is on the ground offering the support on the lines that run actually the telecom into the TRACON.
(06:32)
They've assured me that this work is their top priority, especially Verizon. I spoke with their CEO yesterday, it's a top priority. They're going to move this work as fast as possible to get efficient and effective lines working for Newark. The goal is to add three new telecommunication connections between New York and Philadelphia. This will provide more high-speed, reliability and redundancy. So if one goes down, we are assured that the others will stand up. The goal is to have this done as soon as possible. I'll give you an update as soon as we hear back from Verizon on how quickly they can progress with this work. Let me be clear, even with these new lines, we still, as I mentioned, have to dumb down the data feed for these outdated systems inside of our towers, our centers, and our TRACONs. Again, I showed this last week, we're using equipment that looks like it's off the Apollo 13 set.
(07:31)
And so today we have high-speed fiber, but when it comes into the TRACON, we do slow it down so it can be used by the old equipment. Our hope is to have high-speed fiber connections, and then new technology in these towers and TRACONs and centers so we can maximize the use of American airspace. Number five, the FAA is deploying a temporary backup system to the Philadelphia TRACON that will provide redundancy during the switch to a more reliable fiber optic network. This system will ensure that if both fiber connections fail, at the same time, air traffic controllers will still be able to communicate with aircraft and with other controllers. This fortifies communications, ensures it is uninterrupted if a dual fiber failure occurs.
(08:24)
The FAA is going to establish a STARS hub at the Philadelphia TRACON, so the facility doesn't have to pull that data from New York. So again, we're pulling it from New York, we want to bring that down to Philadelphia. By the way, the STARS system should have been brought down to Philadelphia before this TRACON was moved. Biden-Buttigieg did not bring it down. They just quickly moved the TRACON without having STARS in place and without testing how hard the equipment actually was. In regard to telecommunications. Using existing statutory authority, I
Sean Duffy (09:00):
… I have, is the secretary of DOT. The DOT will convene a delay reduction meeting this Wednesday with all airlines who have flights at Newark. The goal is to have a manageable number of flights land at Newark. Families shouldn't have to wait four or five hours for a flight that never takes off. By lowering the number of flights we can ensure the ones that are kept, they do actually take off and they do actually land. This authority hasn't been used in over 20 years. As I've stated publicly, if Congress approves our plan, the president's plan, to build a brand new air traffic control system, work at Newark is going to be a priority. We will do that first. And so again, to recap, and I'm going to pass it off to the administrator, we're in a situation where telecom is going down and it's taken some time to isolate the problem, and we believe we've done that, but I don't think we're out of the woods yet.
(10:04)
We actually have to spend the time now to build the network that should have been built before the TRACON was moved. I know this is frustrating. I know it's hard for the airlines operating out of Newark, the families that fly out of Newark. It's problematic but our commitment is always safety. We're going to make sure that if you fly, you're going to fly safely. And if we reduce the number of flights at Newark, we're not doing it to annoy people. We're not doing it to delay people's travel. What we're doing is guaranteeing safety. And when you have problems, you actually slow things down, and that's what we've done. We've slowed down the flights at Newark until we can stand this system up and be assured that we have enough controllers and a system that's actually working to keep everybody safe. And again, we didn't have to be here. This did not have to be our story.
(10:58)
Over the last four years, the last administration, they knew this was a problem. And by the way, during COVID when people weren't flying, that was a perfect time to fix these problems. But again, they got $1.2 trillion for infrastructure and virtually none of it went to fix the biggest American infrastructure problem that we have, which is our air traffic control system. And so what you see in Newark, we're going to have to fix. We're going to move fast, but we're going to do it right. My concern is that we could see other situations like this around the country because the system is old. It's old and we are fighting to make sure we work with Congress, get the money and begin this build of a brand new system as quickly as possible.
(11:43)
This couldn't happen without the leadership of President Trump, who again, I'm going to say, he talked to me. When he came the job, he knew how old the system was, and so when I presented him this plan, he said, "Listen, I want you to walk through it. Are we going to do the whole thing? This is not a patchwork. It's not a bandaid. This is going to be everything. We're going to build it brand new." And I said, "Yes, Mr. President. This is a plan to build everything new." It's going to be complicated, but we don't want more Newarks. We don't want more Newarks to happen throughout the country, and so we are going to fix Newark. We have a plan to fix Newark. We ask for your patience, and then we're looking to Congress to give us the resources to fix air traffic for the whole country, so no one has to deal with this in the future.
(12:32)
And with that, I would like to pass it off to a guy who has done an amazing job in orchestrating his team, in building a tiger team to make sure we can quickly and efficiently address the problems that we face at Newark and throughout the system, our acting administrator of the FAA, Chris Rocheleau.
Chris Rocheleau (12:52):
Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Good afternoon. Yes, as the secretary just described, so we have an action plan moving forward here. Starting today, we've, under the secretary's direction, we have initiated a task force, an emergency task force, comprised of experts, executive experts from the FAA, from L3Harris Corporation, as well as from Verizon. We're very focused on making sure that travel into Newark is safe and efficient. I can tell you uncategorically, that the travel into Newark today is safe, but we will continue to monitor that situation as it relates to the technologies that the secretary referenced earlier. And we will also work with the airlines, and the second reference was through this delay reduction task force, or meeting that we're having on Wednesday, that will be critical to working with the carriers to make sure that the travel season this summer is good for the American traveling public.
(13:54)
So, again, first and foremost, we have a task force starting today with the right technical experts to keep focus on this every single day and to be transparent about the progress we're making. And the second piece is to make sure that we're working with the airlines and the airport, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to make sure that the travel into Newark this summer is safe. The final thing I would mention, and the secretary touched on this as well, is it is time. We have seen delays in disruptions in the system. We need to get ahead of that, and by being bold and taking action on this new air traffic modernization program, that will be the long-term fix, even the mid-term fix, to make sure that we continue to provide safe and efficient travel for the American traveling public.
Sean Duffy (14:51):
Frank, want to have a word? [inaudible 00:14:52] want to say something?
Frank (14:51):
Thank you, Mr. Secretary. As a former controller and now as a manager that helps oversee the Air Traffic Organization, top to bottom, in all my conversations with our management team and with the controllers, they look forward to new infrastructure. They look forward to the commitment that is being made by this administration and the leadership by Mr. Duffy to work on equipment that is younger than the children that they have. I will tell you, when I was in the Air Force and I was a controller in 1999, I actually was the test bed for STARS. That's when STARS first came out was in 1999 at Eglin Air Force Base. We tested that. As a controller at Albuquerque Center, it was almost 20 years ago where the ERAM system came in. That's our automation for our en route centers. And the issues that we have with static on the frequencies were problematic then, it's exponential now. So we look forward, Mr. Secretary, to the new infrastructure, top to bottom. We applaud your efforts, sir. Thank you.
Sean Duffy (15:53):
So we're happy to take any questions if you have any. Yes?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Mr. Secretary, thank you. Could we see more air traffic controllers from better staffed towers come to Newark to help out?
Sean Duffy (16:05):
I'll take a stab at that. Tell me if I'm wrong, but it does take time to train up controllers from other areas. So if they move from the Potomac TRACON and move up to Philly, it takes up to a year to train them on that airspace. Frank, am I right on that?
Frank (16:23):
Average certification time, sir, for N90 is two and a half years, but with our accelerated program, we hope to have that reduced quite a bit by a year to a year and a half, two years.
Sean Duffy (16:32):
So it could be a year. So even you have a 20-year experienced controller, they move to a new airspace, it takes them a long time to train up. So we don't have the ability to just snap our fingers and move controllers around. It takes time to train up specifically on the airspace in which they control, which is why the staffing becomes a issue, and you got to see over the horizon on how you make sure you have enough in training to deal with any shortfalls that may come in the out-years. Yes?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
You've been saying that this is decades old problems, and these issues have been present for years, and years, and years. So why didn't this administration initiate changes in their first administration?
Sean Duffy (17:12):
Well, I think what we saw is the cracks that you are now seeing today were highlighted actually over the last four years. We were seeing more and more of it, and the president has said this a number of times. He had a plan to come into the second part of his administration, because he knew what was going on, to actually fix it. Some money, some billions of dollars were allocated from the last administration to this effort, and it was wasted. You don't see any result of any money that's been spent over four years. And by the way, they had no problem spending money. They spent a lot of money and they didn't spend the money here. The president was understanding the cracks at the end of his administration and was going to fix it four years ago. But the last administration, they did nothing about it, and so
Sean Duffy (18:00):
So as things get old, you get to the point where you're starting to hear some rattles in your car. That's probably the sign you bring it to the shop. The last administration was hearing the rattles and they basically kept driving and didn't do anything to fix it. Yeah, Grady,
Grady (18:14):
Thank you. First question is on Newark specifically. Last week, I think it was United's CEO said that the FAA regularly approves more than 80 flights per hour at Newark, even though it also tells the airline that 77 is the maximum. So I guess the question is that true, and if so, why is it happening? And then what's the target for reduction going forward?
Chris Rocheleau (18:40):
Yes, it's a great question. I would say to you currently we're running essentially 24 to 28 arrivals. There's a lot of things that factor into the way the controllers can safely manage air traffic in and out of Newark. So that could be staffing, that could be technology, that could be weather, and all of those decisions are made based on the ability to safely manage that traffic in there. So there's no 70 flights an hour. There are arrivals and departures when you do the math, but at the end of the day, what we're talking about is safe arrivals, safe departures. Right now we're running a variable rate between 24 and 28. We expect that will continue. Again, when the construction project finishes at Newark, we will have an ability to kind of manage some additional traffic, but first and foremost, we're going to make sure our controllers are comfortable handling the workload they have and then making sure that all those other parameters are factored into the decision to accept arrivals.
Grady (19:42):
And what do you think an appropriate target is? I know you still have the meeting coming on Wednesday, but do you have a number in mind going into it?
Chris Rocheleau (19:50):
So I'll start from a place of whatever's safe to bring in there, and we're going to work very closely with the carriers and the airport to make sure that that is appropriately communicated to traveling public as well.
Grady (20:03):
Mr. Secretary one for you. In his previous term, president Trump advocated for the privatization of ATC. I know you've said that you don't want to go that route. I'm wondering if you've spoken with the president about that and what changed since then.
Sean Duffy (20:17):
So I haven't specifically talked to the president about privatization. I don't recall whether he was supportive or not, but what we have to do is unify Congress. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, it's an American issue, and privatization is an issue that divides people. And once the president and I and Chris are done building a brand new system and they want to have a conversation about privatization, they can do that. We'll be long gone, but if we have that, nothing is going to happen here and there's more risk to the airspace, I'm not going to have more risk to the airspace. And so I want to keep everyone together. R's and D's, we're all wearing the same American shirt, let's get it done together. Yes.
Allie (21:02):
Hi, Allie from Bloomberg News. I wanted to ask about Wednesday's meeting and piggyback off the question about flight reductions. So I saw that the notice mentioned the FAA was going to propose no more than 56 total operations per hour, 28 arrivals, 28 departures. When you're talking about reductions, is that going to be proportional based on how many flights the airline has out of Newark? And then also which airlines are attending Wednesday's meeting?
Chris Rocheleau (21:30):
So I don't have a list of the RSVPs just yet. I can tell you that based on those conversations that will occur, and I'll call it our target rate, all those airlines are going to have to come and explain what they need and making sure that we're doing this in a fair and open transparent manner. So, I don't want to get ahead of that conversation. I think it's fair to say that both the airport as well as the airlines are going to have strong feelings about what they need to get out of Newark. We will have those conversations and as a result of that, we'll make those decisions public.
Sean Duffy (22:11):
I think it's important to note we don't want to front run that conversation. Again, we're convening the airlines and having an open and constructive dialogue with them we hope, yes.
Will Guisbond (22:21):
Hi. Yeah, Will Guisbond from The Air Current. I just wanted to clarify. So the move of N-90 from Long Island to Philadelphia has been in works for years as I'm sure. Are you specifically criticizing the way the move was done or the fact that the airspace was moved at all?
Sean Duffy (22:38):
What I'm criticizing is the fact that I don't believe that the telecom was adequately tested because if it had been tested, they would have seen the errors that they saw in October and November of last year under their administration, and we wouldn't be seeing the errors and the telecom right now. So they didn't test it. And before they moved the TRACON, they should have put the star system down at Philly that would have hardened the system. And so there was a number of things that weren't done in preparation for the move, which has left us in a situation in which we now have these reductions and cancellations at Newark. Yes.
Sam Ogozalek (23:19):
Sam Ogozalek, Politico. You mentioned the backup system at the Philly TRACON and then also a software patch on Friday. Are those the same things or can you distinguish what the differences are if there are any?
Sean Duffy (23:31):
So do I want to take this? Do you want to go?
Frank (23:35):
Sure. Yes sir.
Sean Duffy (23:35):
I'll try it, and then if I get it… So, because the telecom is so fast coming in and we have to slow it down, when the primary line went down and we switched to the backup line, the system we have in place was not adequately slowing down the feed, and so it overloaded that line and it went down. But again, we are trying to slow speeds down to 1990 speeds for 1980 equipment. So we're going to build new high-speed resilient fiber lines, but we also then need technology from today that can take the speeds and because they're mismatched, the second line got overloaded and went down. That's what happened in both two weeks ago and on Friday morning. Did I get that right, Frank? Am I close?
Sam Ogozalek (24:43):
So is the backup system operational right now? I know the software patch has been deployed.
Sean Duffy (24:47):
So the software patch actually worked on Sunday morning, so that's why we didn't lose radar, we didn't lose telecom on Sunday morning, but the primary line went down, and when that happened, the prior two times, the whole system went down for 30 seconds. So the controllers were concerned, and that's why they did a ground stop for 45 minutes. However, we didn't lose telecom and we didn't lose scopes this Sunday. The backup line and the fix worked. So, the backup line was functioning the way it is supposed to. Does that make sense? Okay. Yes.
Dave Sherwood (25:19):
Yeah. Dave Sherwood for Reuters. Verizon has a $2.4 billion contract. The FAA signed in 2023 to replace the copper wire. Why do you think it hasn't happened faster, and what's the medium term solution? You mentioned the software patch, the short term fix, but when'll we have an assurance that the system is modern enough at Newark at least to ensure that this doesn't happen again?
Sean Duffy (25:41):
They signed a $2.4 billion contract the last administration did with Verizon. Do you know how long it was going to take to actually implement that $2.4 billion contract, which by the way was not enough money to build out fiber throughout the whole system? It was a 15-year contract, so this contract that was just signed, they have another 12 years to complete the work, which was idiotic from the last administration. And so, we're trying to repurpose and get Verizon to move more quickly. They've been good partners, they're trying to accommodate the needs of the FAA and the flying public. And so again, we're going to need more money on the telecom front, that was just a part of it, and we can use some of that money for what work we're doing here. That was the first part of your question. The second part was?
Dave Sherwood (26:29):
Current system requires a lot of maintenance.
Sean Duffy (26:31):
It does.
Dave Sherwood (26:31):
I think some of these outages may have gone down when maintenance was occurring. So what's the roadmap to a medium-term solution where we don't have these type of outages? Or will the backup system be enough?
Sean Duffy (26:41):
So in Newark, we have, again, we've taken out the connections at the airports that were copper. We've made them now fiber. So we have fiber connections at the airports. We're testing those right now, we go through a two-week test period before we flip the switch. End
Sean Duffy (27:00):
Of May, we should be able to flip the switch and bring the fiber online. But we're having problems with some of the lines we're currently using. So we are pushing our contractors to actually fix these telecom issues that we have right now. And it was supposed to be the end of the summer. I don't want to give you a date because you're going to hold me to it, but we are pushing them to radically speed up the timeframe in which they can deliver new telecom into the Philly TRACON, which should resolve the issues that we're experiencing over the last two weeks. Yes.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
You have the one or two more next?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah. Two questions. One is, I know you said Newark will be a priority. Will it be the number one priority given the confluence of problems that we've seen?
Sean Duffy (27:48):
Yeah, so I think we're going to have to do more than one location at a time, but yes, priority number one is going to be Newark.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
And then I understand you're placing a lot of the blame on the previous administration, but these problems are happening now under-
Sean Duffy (28:08):
Of course.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
… the second administration. Are you just unlucky or are there some real issues that need to be addressed under this current administration?
Sean Duffy (28:16):
If you buy a used car, you drive it home and go to bed, wake up the next morning and drive to the store and it breaks down. Is it your fault or is it the guy that you bought it from, sold you a lemon? Right. So we have to recognize, again, because I think a lot of the media tries to say, "Oh, this infrastructure is failing under the first 100 days of the Trump administration or Sean Duffy as secretary." And I think that is a known falsehood, known lie by the media. You all know that it's been cracking. Those of you who cover aviation, there's been telltale signs, there's been conversations, there's been congressional hearings on this. And the fact that the last administration did nothing should be reported. The fact that they spent $ 1.2 trillion and really invested zero in this massive infrastructure bill that America needs, aviation needs, and they didn't pay attention to it at all. If they would've moved the TRACON from N90 down to Philly and wouldn't harden the network and wouldn't move the star system down to Philly shows I think a lack of focus.
(29:23)
And maybe when you work from home or maybe when you work from Michigan as a secretary, you're not focused on the real issues that are taking place throughout the airspace. And that's what was happening at this department. They were focused on what we call a cockpit versus a flight deck. We had to change notice to airmen to notice to air mission. That was the focus as opposed to, you have a cracking system and let's get the money to fix it, or let's at least start the fix in that system. They didn't do that. And so I've inherited it. The Trump administration inherited it. Donald Trump has said, "We are going to fix it. We are not going to pass it off." So we are not going to do what they did. And so I fully embrace, as you can see, we've developed a plan.
(30:10)
We've put out a plan, we've told the Congress this is what we have to do. We are not shying away from any problems, but I think it's important to recognize why we have the problems. You didn't get old cracking infrastructure in 100 days. It came from the four years before where they chose to do nothing. And so we're going to fix it. The Congress has to help, and if they do, we're going to fix it quickly. They gave us the problem. We have the results in this administration, and again, we're going to continue to update you. If there's any other issues at Newark, we want to be transparent. We want to let you know what infrastructure problems there are. If there's telecom issues, we're going to let you know what those are and we'll keep you apprised of how we're going to fix the issues that arise.
(30:57)
Hopefully we're done. I'm not going to tell you we're done. My hope is that we're done. But as Chris Rushlow indicated, we are about safety and I know there's frustration about the number of flights at Newark. I get that. I fly out of Newark, my wife flies out of Newark, my kids fly Newark. It's frustrating. But again, we're all about safety, and safety is the mission. And so if we can only do 24 to 28 flights an hour, that's all we're going to do to feel like we are adequate in the mission of keeping people safe, going from point A to point B. And with that, thank you all for coming. We'll keep you updated as things develop.
