Air traffic controllers in Florida briefly lost their radar on Friday after a fiber optic line was cut, but the malfunction did not lead to disturbances such as what happened after similar malfunctions around the Newark, New Jersey, Airport this spring.
Controllers were able to continue aircraft in five states in the southeast because a back system started immediately as designed. The Federal Aviation Administration said that no flights were disrupted.
De FAA said that the radar center in Jacksonville, Florida, continued to work, but according to the alarm status because the primary communication line perished. A contractor worked on Friday afternoon on repairing the cut -off line. Authorities did not specify what caused the cut line or where it happened.
The FAA said that the malfunction was temporary, but when air traffic controllers in another facility in Philadelphia lost twice this spring, it took 90 seconds for their systems to restart after the system dropped. In that case the back -up system did not work immediately. These malfunctions led to major disruptions on Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey because five controllers then went trauma leave and that facility in Philadelphia aircraft leads in and out of the airport.
Hundreds of flights had to be canceled in Newark because the remaining controllers could not safely process every flight on the schedule. The activities at the airport have since improved considerably
A spokesperson for the FAA said that there was “no loss of critical air traffic service” in Jacksonville because the back -up system started. That center is responsible for aircraft that fly around 160,000 square miles (414,000 square kilometers) in most of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.
The problems in Newark were accused of failing aging copper wires that many of the nation air traffic control system still depend on. Transport officials said that the Newark problems have shown the need for a revision of millions of dollars from the system that they are lobbying the congress to approve.
