Colorado air traffic controllers lose contact with pilots of some planes

HOUSTON, United States

Air traffic controllers lost communications with some planes flying into Denver International Airport in the state of Colorado for nearly two minutes, according to a report Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The FAA released a statement to news outlets, which said the communications outage happened at about 2 pm local time (2000GMT) on Monday and lasted “approximately 90 seconds.”

“Both transmitters that cover a segment of airspace went down. Controllers used another frequency to relay instructions to pilots,” said the FAA, which is continuing its investigation of the outage. “Aircraft remained safely separated and there were no impacts to operations.”

News reports indicated that as many as 20 pilots flying into Denver International could not connect with air traffic controllers on Monday.

This is the second instance of air traffic controllers losing communications with aircraft in nearly three weeks. The previous outage happened at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) in the state of New Jersey in which the FAA said the system “completely failed.”

The FAA said at least five air traffic controllers at EWR took a 45-day leave of absence “to recover from the stress of multiple recent outages,” and major delays were reported at Newark Liberty due to the staff shortages.

Scrutiny over the FAA’s outdated systems continues after the two recent outages and a deadly January midair crash between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet at Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) near Washington, DC that killed 67 people.

FAA officials faced questioning from lawmakers Thursday at a US House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee meeting, where the recent air traffic control failures and the safety of the civil aviation industry were addressed.

Frank McIntosh, the deputy chief operating officer with the FAA, addressed the agency’s antiquated systems, directly addressing the Denver outage.

“We know that the problems have gone back decades in some cases, but it’s still an absolutely shocking system failure, and we need immediate solutions,” said McIntosh.

While lawmakers have not come up with a specific plan and dollar amount to address the FAA’s multitude of issues, a congressional committee recently estimated that modernizing the air traffic control system could cost nearly $12.5 billion.

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