Newark International Outages Raise Safety Concerns About U.S. Airports

[oldman]

For the fourth time in two weeks, Newark International Airport (N.J. code EWR), one of the busiest in the country, has experienced technical issues. Three were radar outages and one was caused by a technical glitch in the Philadelphia (PA) substation. The radar outages were for 90 seconds each and air traffic controllers had to warn pilots that they could not guide their planes in for landings. The outages caused duress for the controllers, several of whom took sick leave because of the stress. That combination of events have caused delays and cancelations, creating a travel nightmare across the country. The FAA is scheduled to meet with airport officials Wednesday and will likely call for a certain percentage of daily flights to be canceled.

Thank goodness, my son was able to change his upcoming Friday flight from EWR to LaGuardia in New York. However, that change almost doubled his ticket price! The video report below highlights the serious concern about outdated equipment and failing airport infrastructure across the country. Unfortunately it can take 4 to 5 years to fix the issues. I hope they can get it done before their is another tragedy.
https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/video/newark-airport-atc-outages-raise-safety-concerns-121677499

I have flown many times in and out of Newark. Their computer system definitely needs updating. The ATC's do as good a job as they can with what tools they have. The problems occur in early to mid morning with several planes taking off just minutes apart. Same during later afternoons through early evenings when several planes are trying to lineup to get onto the runway.

When I was in Newark for early departure, I would try to push back 10 minutes early, if all of my passengers were onboard. The FAA does or did allow us to close the main cabin door 10 minutes early, regardless if all of our passengers were on board or not. I never got into the practice of doing that. If we were scheduled for a 6 a. m. departure and all of our passengers were not yet on board, we waited until 6 am before closing the door. I didn't like leaving any passengers behind. Depending on which way the wind was blowing, I liked using Runways 4 Left or 22 Right because of how long it was.

In my opinion, Atlanta has all of the other airports beat as far as aesthetics inside the airport and their computer systems in the tower. Never had an issue in Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, except their coffee prices at Starbucks were higher than at other airports.

 

[oldman]

I recall a lot more commercial airline crashes in the past than currently, especially considering how many more flights there are these days.

There are several factors why this is going on. One of the common reasons is that we are seeing more flights than ever before, we have fewer experienced pilots partly due to the layoffs of many pilots deciding to retire, instead of taking the needle. Training had to be sped up to get new pilots into the cockpit. Airlines must follow FAA rules, so the number of hours a new pilot received as part of their training is critical before pilots are able to take their place in the cockpit. Even then, they have to be guided more now than when I was flying.

When I trained my newbies, I made sure they understood what I was talking about. I urged them to let me know if they didn't understand something. If I thought they were telling me that they understood, but I thought they didn't, I would ask them a simple question and in most cases, they got the answer wrong. I would go over it again until they gave me the right answer. I liked training female pilots. They had something to prove, so they were always on top of their game. This one particular female told me that this was her first day on the job, which I already knew, and she asked me if she could do the takeoff. I told her to be my guest.

When we pushed the throttles up so that the engines begin to spool, both the Captain and First Officer put their hands on the throttles and slowly push them forward. When she put her hand on the throttles, I placed my hand on top of hers. She gave me the strangest look. I asked her if something was wrong. She said that didn't happen in raining. I told her why we did that and she then understood.

 

[StarSong]

we have fewer experienced pilots partly due to the layoffs of many pilots deciding to retire, instead of taking the needle.

What do you mean by "take the needle"?

When she put her hand on the throttles, I placed my hand on top of hers. She gave me the strangest look. I asked her if something was wrong. She said that didn't happen in raining. I told her why we did that and she then understood.

Why did you do that?