You might have thought your Monday was rough, but a construction crew inadvertently sliced a Verizon fiber‑optic line, sparking more than 150 flight diversions and hundreds of cancellations.
The slip knocked out air‑traffic control at a Philadelphia hub that oversees northeastern flights. A circuit there failed, and investigators later found the backup line had also been severed, according to Bryan Bedford, head of the Federal Aviation Administration.
New Jersey Transit noted its crews were working roughly 10 feet from utility markings and was trying to ascertain whether Verizon or the contractors had placed those marks.
An analysis by Themoneytimes of Flightradar24 data revealed that 165 aircraft headed for Newark, LaGuardia, JFK, or Philadelphia were diverted elsewhere on Monday.
Newark absorbed the biggest share: 109 flights slated to land there were rerouted. Roughly 20 flights each were bound for the other three airports.
Washington, D.C., became the most common diversion destination, with 22 planes touching down at Dulles International. Meanwhile, ten flights ended at Lehigh Valley, a modest regional airport near Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Not shown in the graphic are five additional Europe‑origin flights that turned back to their departure points—often described as ‘flights to nowhere’.
Passengers aboard Lufthansa Flight 412 endured eight hours on an Airbus A350 that performed a U‑turn over the Atlantic before returning to Munich. Likewise, a TAP Air Portugal service from Porto to Newark was about mid‑ocean when it was forced to reverse course.
United Airlines appeared to suffer the most, given that Newark is one of its primary hubs.
Data from FlightAware indicated the carrier cancelled 361 flights—11% of its schedule—and nearly 800 were delayed.
American Airlines also felt the impact, logging over 100 cancellations and 1,300 delays, not counting its regional‑flight subsidiaries.
About five hours after the disruption began, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X that the telecom lines had been repaired and airport operations were resuming.
Even with many aircraft and crews out of position, airline schedules still faced minor hiccups Tuesday morning, with a few dozen cancellations at Newark.