Flights halted at three US airports as watchdog warns over hacking threat

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted flights at three major US airports—Newark Liberty International, Philadelphia International, and Teterboro—on Monday due to a radio equipment problem that affected some frequencies at the Philadelphia terminal radar approach control (Tracon). The issue occurred around 10am, causing delays in arrivals and departures at Newark, while the FAA investigated the outage.

The Federal Accountability Office (GAO) report underscored concerns over the vulnerability of US aircraft guidance systems to interference and deception threats, such as hacking, spoofing, and jamming. This came as Senator Ron Wyden, a key figure in privacy, surveillance, and cyber security discussions, emphasized the potential for hackers to send fraudulent messages to aircraft, potentially causing safety risks or disrupting airspace.

The GAO report found that the FAA has yet to complete risk assessments or update security documentation concerning such threats. Furthermore, the systems used to send text messages to aircraft were found to be outdated, lacking encryption and other modern cybersecurity safeguards. The senator called for the FAA to establish new standards promptly to safeguard national security, economic interests, and passenger safety.

Past incidents at Newark include a 2025 outage that blanked controllers' screens for 60 to 90 seconds and cut communication with aircraft, leading to a 60-90 second FAA ground stop.