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Newark Liberty International Airport continues to cause major headaches for travelers who are now worried about their safety.
At least five air traffic controllers had to take 45-day 'trauma leave' after equipment failures created chaos in the air and on the runway.
One air traffic controller was heard on released audio telling a pilot approaching the airport, "We don't have a radar, so I don't know where you are."
CNN aviation expert Pete Muntean declared, "There is no end in sight right now," to the airport's problems, which have dragged on for more than a week. "To replace these controllers who are now out on trauma leave, [the FAA] can't drag and drop controllers from some other place. It's a very specialized job."
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Muntean explained that some controllers for Newark Liberty are located at the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control facility (TRACON), who can't make visual contact with planes.
"Controllers, they are essentially in this facility, stuck in a dark room with a radar scope and the radio. That's the only way they have to see airplanes and communicate with them," Muntean said. "This is not like controllers in a tower where they can look out a window and see what's going on. And, so, when they don't have those resources available to them, they are pretty well hosed. It's pretty hard for them to do this job. And, so, they're essentially doing the job blind. They need these resources, and this is something the FAA has to do in the immediate."
Muntean said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is planning an announcement Thursday, "Where the Trump administration will announce a wide-ranging revamp of the air traffic control system, because so many people agree here that the problem is the aging technology. That is the central issue."
Newark Liberty has cancelled some 800 flights since that equipment outage began last week.
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