Accidentally Cut Cables Cause Massive Flight Delays at Dallas Airports

Hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled at Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Dallas Love Field on Friday Sep. 19 after two fiber-optic cables were accidentally severed, disrupting critical communication systems. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and American Airlines confirmed that the outage affected the radar, radio frequencies, and computer systems that support air traffic operations in North Texas.

In a memo to employees, American Airlines Chief Operating Officer David Seymour explained that the cut cables impacted both the primary and secondary data paths needed to manage air traffic in and out of the area. “Yesterday was an incredibly challenging day for our airline — most importantly, an incredibly challenging day for our team and customers,” Seymour wrote. The disruption left thousands of travelers stranded and prompted ground stops for select flights at North Texas’s two largest airports.

Operations at both DFW and Love Field returned to normal by Saturday morning. Frontier Communications, which owns the fiber lines, said in a statement to NBC5 that “another carrier’s third-party contractor working in Argyle, Texas, accidentally cut our fiber lines. This interruption affected communication systems at the local airports. Our team worked overnight, closely coordinating with the FAA and the airports to stabilize the systems, and as a result the airports are up and running today.”

The FAA called the incident a stark example of the vulnerabilities of its aging infrastructure. “Moving from aging, analog systems to more resilient, digital technology is critical to maintaining the reliability and resiliency of the national airspace system,” the agency said in a statement. The FAA also noted that Friday’s disruption was caused by “multiple failures” involving both Frontier Communications and FAA contractor L3 Harris, which oversees parts of the system.

Seymour expressed frustration with both companies for their slow response. “In addition, we’ve all had a difficult time — including Robert and myself — reaching leadership at Frontier and L3 Harris. We are extraordinarily disappointed that neither provider seems to have any sense of urgency to resolve this matter,” he said.

The incident has renewed calls for faster modernization of the FAA’s systems to ensure that a single infrastructure failure does not cascade into widespread flight disruptions.


Related News: https://airguide.info/?s=DFW, https://airguide.info/?s=Dallas+Love+Field

Sources: AirGuide Business airguide.info, bing.com, nbcdfw.com