{
  "id": 9043075,
  "title": "Thousands of US flights snarled before FAA resolves telecom problem",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/21/thousands-of-us-flights-snarled-before-faa-resolves-telecom-problem",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-21T23:30:20.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "New Straits Times",
    "slug": "new-straits-times",
    "url": "https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2026/09/1537993/thousands-us-flights-snarled-faa-resolves-telecom-problem"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Thousands of flights across the United States were disrupted on Monday due to a telecommunications problem that was resolved late in the afternoon by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The issue began around 9:45 am when workers accidentally severed a telecom line in New Jersey used by the FAA. This led to a halt in incoming flights at major airports on the East Coast, coinciding with world leaders' arrival in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. The FAA halted arrivals at three major New York-area airports, Philadelphia, Boston, and two smaller airports in the region. The problems persisted for eight hours before being fully resolved. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that telecom lines had been repaired and normal operations throughout the Northeast were resuming. About 7,000 flights were delayed or canceled, with more than half of all flights at Newark, the major United Airlines hub, being canceled. The incident highlighted the vulnerabilities of the aging US air traffic control system, for which Congress had allocated $12.5 billion in funding for upgrades the previous year.",
  "summary": "WASHINGTON: Thousands of flights across the US were snarled on Monday, with incoming flights halted for hours at major East Coast airports, before the Federal Aviation Administration resolved a telecommunications problem late in the afternoon.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Business Insider",
        "title": "What we know about the FAA outage disrupting thousands of flights across the Northeast",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/21/what-we-know-about-the-faa-outage-disrupting-thousands-of-flights",
        "published": "2026-09-21T20:02:32.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "CBS News",
        "title": "Thousands of flights canceled after FAA systems went down",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/21/thousands-of-flights-canceled-after-faa-systems-went-down",
        "published": "2026-09-21T23:25:04.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}