Ground stops hit major U.S. Northeast airports after air traffic communication failure

Reuters reported at 17:00 UTC on September 21 that the FAA had temporarily halted some inbound flights to Philadelphia International, Newark Liberty International and Teterboro airports after problems affected frequencies at a Philadelphia air traffic control facility. The outage also forced some flights to divert to other airports.

Axios reported in a 17:54 UTC update that ground stops remained in effect at about 1:20 p.m. EDT for Newark, John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, Westchester County, Philadelphia and Teterboro airports. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford attributed the disruption to construction damage to air-traffic-control fiber lines and said a backup fiber path was also found to have a break.

Reuters cited FlightAware as reporting more than 600 delayed flights at Newark and Philadelphia combined, exceeding 20% of the day's flights at each airport. Flightradar24 reported that average delays at Newark reached 112 minutes at one point. Those were live figures at the time of reporting, not final totals, and may change as flights resume or are cancelled.

The confirmed core facts are the FAA's inbound restrictions, an air traffic communication equipment failure and substantial delays at major airports. The complete affected-airport list, repair timing and final flight totals remain fluid. Travellers should rely on their airline, departure airport and the FAA National Airspace System Status page for current information. The accompanying image is an N Globe editorial illustration, not documentary footage. Verification status: developing. News value: A-level major news. Origin region: United States. Primary section: Safety. Related regions: United States, Canada and World. Source times: September 21, 2026, 17:00–17:54 UTC. Report date: September 21, 2026.