Air traffic controllers took to social media on Labor Day to report that radar screens in Philadephia that cover Newark Airport "went blank for five minutes." Meanwhile, the FAA ordered a ground stop at Newark and throttled traffic heading into the airport. Some inbound international flights were diverted while others were stuck at their departure airports thoughout the country. As of late Monday, FlightAware was reporting departure delays of up to 89 minutes and arrival delays of 61 minutes. A ground stop was also in place at Teterborough.
When a five minute loss of data produces hour-and-a-half departure delays, your air traffic control system is stretched too tight, operating too close to it’s total capacity limit.
I’m questioning what is PHL’s backup system. CENRAP, MOSAIC with NY common I? There should be immediate capability of a different feed when one goes down.