Denver Airport loses all air traffic control communications for 90 seconds sparking panic in skies
Denver air traffic controllers lost communications for 90 seconds on Monday, causing chaos in the skies over the massive travel hub.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the outage at Denver International Airport that severed communications with incoming flights.
It is the last incident in a slew of air traffic control blackouts that have riddled American airspace in recent weeks – including multiple outages at Newark International Airport.
‘Part of the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) experienced a loss of communications for approximately 90 seconds around 1:50 p.m. local time on Monday, May 12, when both transmitters that cover a segment of airspace went down,’ the agency said.
‘Controllers used another frequency to relay instructions to pilots. Aircraft remained safely separated and there were no impacts to operations.’
As many as 20 pilots flying into the busy airport were unable to speak with air traffic controllers during the outage, Denver7 reported.
Sources told the outlet that a controller was able to contact one pilot using a guard line – which is used when a pilot is in distress – and that pilot was able to tell the other aircrafts to change frequencies.
Four frequencies from the two main towers at the air traffic control center in Longmont were already out of service, according to the report.
Denver air traffic controllers lost communications for 90 seconds on Monday causing chaos in the skies over the airport (pictured)
As many as 20 pilots flying into the busy airport were unable to speak with air traffic controllers during the outage (pictured: inside a control tower at Denver Airport)
Air traffic controllers were using a backup fifth frequency to talk to pilots, which then went out.
‘The biggest risk is you have airplanes that you’re not talking to. And then, therefore, the pilots have to try to figure it out themselves,’ retired Denver air traffic controller David Riley told the news station. ‘It says that the equipment is getting old.
‘It’s one thing to lose track of one airplane because you can’t communicate with them, but to lose track of all of the airplanes that you had communication with.
‘And from my understanding, in this situation, they still had radar coverage, but that’s like watching a car crash happen and not be able to do anything about it.’
On Friday, air traffic controllers at Philadelphia’s Terminal Radar Approach Control facility (TRACON), who are responsible for guiding aircraft in the skies, momentarily lost telecommunication with planes traveling to and from Newark.
On an audio recording, a controller can be heard telling a FedEx plane that her radar screen has gone dark, imploring the pilot to put pressure on their airline to fix the ongoing technological issues.
In another, the Tower instructs an approaching private jet to stay at or above 3,000 feet in case communication is lost again.
Friday’s incident came just days after a similar 30-second blackout of both radar and radio – which likely felt like an eternity to pilots and controllers – on April 28.
Denver’s outage is the last incident in a slew of air traffic control blackouts, including multiple at New Jersey’s Newark Airport (pictured) in recent weeks
Newark (pictured in July) has experienced disruptions for the last two weeks, which officials blamed on air traffic controller staffing issues and construction
In a recording from that day, a pilot can be heard asking, ‘Approach, are you there?’ on five separate occasions and receiving only dead air in response.
In the Tower, it must have been equally tense. Indeed, multiple air traffic controllers have now taken a 45-day ‘trauma leave’ to cope with the scare.
Planes at the airport in Austin, Texas were delayed for up to an hour and a half Sunday because of ‘chronic understaffing’ at the FAA’s air traffic control tower, reported KUT News.
Separately, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International issued a ground stop on Mother’s Day due to equipment failure.
The incidents are the latest in a long line of disasters that the Trump administration blames on ‘antiquated’ FAA systems.
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