Amtrak crew cut fiber line, triggering FAA outage and Northeast flight ground stops

An Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut a fiber-optic line in New Jersey, triggering a telecommunications outage that disrupted Federal Aviation Administration communications and forced temporary flight pauses across the Northeast, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

Duffy said flights are resuming at LaGuardia and Philadelphia, while flights into Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy International and Teterboro Airport remain paused as crews work to restore the affected systems.

The outage disrupted air traffic control communications and caused widespread delays and diversions across the New York and Philadelphia regions. Earlier FAA restrictions affected Newark, Philadelphia and Teterboro, with hundreds of flights delayed.

The incident is tied to damage to air traffic control fiber infrastructure during construction work, adding to ongoing concerns about the resilience of the FAA’s aging communications network.