Florida Air Traffic Radar Briefly Lost After Fiber Line Cut

Air traffic controllers in Florida briefly lost radar coverage on Friday after a fiber optic line was severed. However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that no flights were disrupted thanks to an immediate switch to a backup system.

The incident occurred at the Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center, which oversees approximately 160,000 square miles of airspace across Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Although the center entered alert status after losing its primary communication line, operations continued smoothly.

The FAA reported that a contractor was working Friday (June 20) afternoon to repair the damaged fiber line, though the cause and exact location of the cut were not disclosed. “There was no loss of critical air traffic service,” an FAA spokesperson stated.

The outage was momentary and contrasts sharply with radar failures earlier this year in Philadelphia. During two incidents in the spring, air traffic controllers at the Philadelphia center lost radar and experienced a 90-second delay before backup systems activated. Those outages resulted in significant disruptions at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Five controllers went on trauma leave, and hundreds of flights were canceled due to reduced staffing and system failure.

The Newark incidents highlighted vulnerabilities in the aging infrastructure of the national air traffic control system, which still relies heavily on outdated copper wiring. Transportation officials are urging Congress to approve funding for a multimillion-dollar modernization initiative to improve reliability and system resilience.


Related News: https://airguide.info/category/air-travel-business/travel-health-security/

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