Denver Air Traffic Control Lost Communications For 90 Seconds, Faa Says

FAA, DOT reveal plans to modernize air traffic control, reduce delays

In the wake of technology failures at Newark Liberty International Airport, the plans are aimed at improving safety and efficiency for air travel.

An air traffic control facility in Colorado experienced a communications outage earlier this week, the latest in a series of Federal Aviation Administration equipment failures that have raised concerns over the country's air traffic control infrastructure.

Part of the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center lost communications with planes for about 90 seconds at around 1:50 p.m. local time on May 12, according to the FAA. The agency said transmitters that cover a segment of airspace had gone down but controllers were able to use another frequency to send instructions to pilots.

"Aircraft remained safely separated and there were no impacts to operations," the FAA said in a statement. The agency said it was investigating the incident.

Franklin McIntosh, the FAA's deputy head of air traffic control, confirmed the communications outage during a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on May 15, Reuters reported.

McIntosh said both the main and backup frequencies had failed but a controller was able to transmit to an aircraft to move to a secondary frequency. He added that there was no loss of separation between airplanes during the outage.

"They did exactly what the safety protocols were," McIntosh said during the hearing.

The Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center covers about 285,000 square miles of airspace in parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana, according to its website.

Air traffic control staffing issues and equipment failures have made national headlines in recent weeks due to a series of telecommunications outages at a facility that oversees air traffic at the Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Delays and cancellations at the airport have persisted since the initial outage on April 28 when controllers temporarily lost radar and radio communications with aircraft.

During a news conference on May 13, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged that the nation's air traffic control system is showing signs of its age.

Duffy said the FAA is determined to upgrade the hardware air traffic controllers rely on while prioritizing passenger safety. But until that happens, airlines could be forced to trim their schedules to keep airspace safe, according to Duffy.

The transportation secretary previously proposed on May 8 to spend billions of dollars to modernize the air traffic control system and estimated that the project would take three to four years.

"The system we have here is not worth saving," Duffy said at an event announcing the plan. "We actually have to build a brand new state-of-the-art air traffic control system... We let this go far too long."

A 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office said the FAA has 138 information systems for air traffic control, and 51 are unsustainable due to outdated functionality, a lack of spare parts, and other issues. The report called for the agency to take "urgent action" and noted that the FAA has been "slow to modernize."

Contributing: Zach Wichter, USA TODAY; Reuters