An Air Traffic Controller Speaks Out About Newark Airport

Summary

The Journal Episode Summary: "An Air Traffic Controller Speaks Out About Newark Airport"

Release Date: May 15, 2025
Hosted by Ryan Knutson and Jessica Mendoza
Produced by The Wall Street Journal & Gimlet

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1. Introduction to the Newark Airport Crisis

The episode opens with the revelation of a series of critical technical failures at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the busiest airspaces in the world. Annie Minoff and Andrew Tangle describe how, in late April, air traffic controllers experienced a sudden loss of communication and radar capabilities, leaving them unable to see, hear, or talk to approaching and departing aircraft for a frightening 90 seconds (00:19). This issue persisted, culminating in another significant malfunction that led to a 45-minute ground stop, causing widespread flight delays and cancellations (00:43).

Quote:
Annie Minoff (00:05): "Over the last few weeks, a crisis has unfolded just outside New York City at Newark Liberty International Airport, controllers losing communications with packed passenger planes approaching for landing and planes taking off."

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2. Spotlight on Air Traffic Controller Jonathan Stewart

Jonathan Stewart, an experienced air traffic controller with 25 years in the field, becomes the central figure providing insider insight into the crisis. Stewart reflects on the immense responsibility of his role, emphasizing that controllers are responsible for more lives in a single shift than doctors or surgeons in their entire careers (05:10).

Quote:
Jonathan Stewart (05:33): "We are responsible for the lives of every single person on that airplane. ... an air traffic controller is responsible for more lives on one shift than a doctor or surgeon in his entire career."

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3. Technical Challenges and Staffing Shortages

The conversation delves into the root causes of the ongoing issues at Newark. The FAA's decision to relocate oversight from Long Island to Philadelphia aimed to improve the staffing pipeline by making the position more attractive and affordable (07:05). However, this move introduced a technological dependency on a satellite radar system reliant on a relay from Long Island, which proved unreliable and a source of significant risk (08:35).

Additionally, nationwide staffing shortages exacerbate the problem. The FAA operates with nearly 11,000 fully certified controllers, falling short by about 3,000 from its target. Stewart criticizes the inadequate staffing levels, explaining that controllers often have to manage multiple radar sectors simultaneously, limiting their ability to maintain safety and efficiency (07:38).

Quote:
Jonathan Stewart (07:38): "The staffing is relatively, in my opinion, inadequate... you have to work multiple radar sectors combined. That is going to place limitations on how many aircraft you're going to be able to effectively and safely control."

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4. Impact on Air Traffic and Travelers

The technical malfunctions and staffing shortages at Newark have a ripple effect nationwide, leading to widespread delays and cancellations (07:46). Jonathan Stewart shares that these disruptions not only stress the controllers but also significantly inconvenience travelers, undermining trust in air travel safety.

Quote:
Andrew Tangle (07:46): "The delays resulting from New York generally, including this particular facility, ripple throughout the country."

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5. FAA's Response and Future Plans

In response to the crisis, the FAA has initiated several measures. These include increasing staffing levels at Newark, adding temporary backup systems to prevent future outages, and planning for new high-bandwidth connections between Philadelphia and New York (16:46). Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced plans to upgrade air traffic control infrastructure nationwide, with the Philadelphia facility overseeing Newark being a priority (16:46).

Quote:
Jonathan Stewart (17:20): "They are taking steps in the right direction to fix this. It is a top priority from everybody that I'm aware of to get this situation taken care of, be it the equipment issues as well as the staffing issues."

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6. Personal Toll on Controllers

The episode provides a poignant look into the personal struggles faced by air traffic controllers. Jonathan Stewart discusses the mental and physical toll of the job, including fatigue, stress, and symptoms of acute PTSD stemming from near-miss incidents. Stewart recounts a specific close call on May 4th, where he averted a potential mid-air collision between two aircraft by identifying and rectifying an unexpected error (12:57).

Quote:
Jonathan Stewart (16:15): "The lack of sleep coupled with stress is a killer. ... you do have acute PTSD, and you do have situations where you will have a recurring dream about the incident."

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7. Final Insights and Conclusions

Jonathan Stewart emphasizes the human aspect behind air traffic control operations, highlighting the dedication and professionalism of controllers who work tirelessly under immense pressure to ensure safety. The episode concludes with Stewart urging for better resources and support for controllers, advocating for systemic changes to prevent future crises.

Quote:
Andrew Tangle (17:45): "We wanted to humanize one of these air traffic controllers who are right in the middle of this... to help people at least see who the humans are behind the scenes."

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Key Takeaways

• Technical Reliance and Failures: Newark Airport's dependency on a satellite radar system has introduced vulnerabilities, leading to recurring outages.

• Staffing Shortages: Nationwide shortages of air traffic controllers strain operations, compromising safety and efficiency.

• Human Impact: Controllers face severe mental and physical stress, with incidents of trauma leave highlighting the need for better support systems.

• FAA's Commitment to Improvement: Ongoing efforts to enhance infrastructure and staffing aim to restore reliability and safety at Newark and beyond.

• Personal Stories Highlight Systemic Issues: Jonathan Stewart’s experiences underscore the necessity for systemic changes to support frontline air safety professionals.

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Conclusion

This episode of The Journal sheds light on the critical challenges facing air traffic control at Newark Airport. Through Jonathan Stewart's candid recounting, listeners gain a deeper understanding of the intersection between technological dependence, staffing inadequacies, and the profound personal toll on those ensuring the safety of millions of passengers daily. The conversation underscores the urgent need for comprehensive solutions to bolster air traffic control systems and support the invaluable individuals who operate them.

Transcript

[Annie Minoff]

Over the last few weeks, a crisis has unfolded just outside New York City At Newark Liberty International Airport, controllers losing.

[Andrew Tangle]

Communications with packed passenger planes approaching for landing and planes taking off.

[Annie Minoff]

In late April, the radios that controllers use to talk to airplanes went silent and the radar they used to guide the planes suddenly went dark.

[Andrew Tangle]

Unable to see, hear or talk to the pilots of the aircraft they were.

[Annie Minoff]

Monitoring, controllers were in the dark for a harrowing 90 seconds. Then last week, it happened again.

[Jonathan Stewart]

Another outage earlier this morning, and then.

[Annie Minoff]

Just a few days ago, another malfunction. Another technical issue at Newark Airport today, forcing a 45 minute ground stop, leading to more delays and cancellations. Government officials say they're working to fix the equipment problems. And the CEO of United Airlines, which has a major hub at Newark, has personally tried to reassure the public. In an email to customers, he said that it is, quote, absolutely safe to fly out of the airport. But there's another voice that you don't often hear from after incidents like this. The people on the front lines of air safety. And this week, the Journal sat down with one of them.

[Jonathan Stewart]

My name is Jonathan Stewart. I'm an air traffic controller. I received my first rating in 2000. Excuse my voice. Apparently I'm losing an occupational hazard. I don't think anybody wants to be involved in any sort of incident where safety is compromised. Nobody wants to be involved in that. It's not on anybody's wish list. So, yes, under a lot of stress, under duress, yes, you don't want to be involved in any kind of incident where there's a loss of life.

[Annie Minoff]

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Annie Minoff. It's Thursday, May 15th. Coming up on the show, the chaos at Newark through the eyes of an air traffic controller.

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[Andrew Tangle]

We heard he wanted to go public and talk to us on the record, and we were eager to get his perspective.

[Annie Minoff]

That's aviation reporter Andrew Tangle. He sat down with air traffic controller Jonathan Stewart earlier this week to talk about what's been going on at Newark. The circumstances of their conversation were a bit unusual. As the interview kicked off, Jonathan smoked a cigar while gunfire went off in the background.

[Andrew Tangle]

It was suggested that we meet at a gun range he goes to. And at this particular range, there's this lounge that's outfitted with chesterfield chairs and couches and fireplace. It's very cozy.

[Jonathan Stewart]

I come here and fire off some rounds and, you know, stay proficient at using my weapon of choice, my weapons of choice. And it's just, it's a great way to relieve stress. Yeah.

[Annie Minoff]

Jonathan has been in air traffic control for 25 years. He started his career in the air force in the late 90s.

[Jonathan Stewart]

I joined the air Force to do air traffic control. I didn't knew nothing about it. I just knew that I wanted to do it. It sounded cool. I got a copy of what's referred to as the pilot controller glossary, which has various terminology in it. It means nothing to anybody if you're not in aviation. But I memorized a bunch of it just for fun. Yeah, that's about it, man. The rest is history.

[Andrew Tangle]

And why do you like it?

[Jonathan Stewart]

I like it because it's effing fun, man. Like it, for lack of a better way to put it. Like, we get off on it. Like we, we. When I say we, the newer controllers, supervisors, line controllers, regardless, we enjoy that, man. I mean, it's an adrenaline rush and you have to. You play God, because you cannot fail, you cannot make a mistake. Okay? So we are responsible for the lives of every single person on that airplane. And there's the old saying that an air traffic controller that's responsible for more lives and one shift than a doctor or a surgeon or whatever in his entire career, and that is the case.

[Andrew Tangle]

What do air traffic controllers do and what role do they play in aviation safety?

[Jonathan Stewart]

We are the guys that are guiding your pilots home. So that means when your airplane takes off and your wheel's up and your captain is told to contact departure, that's me.

[Annie Minoff]

Jonathan describes airspace like the layers of a cake, with each layer managed by a dedicated team of controllers. The people in the towers at the airport, they're in charge of the bottom layer, where the planes take off and touch down. But Jonathan, he's in the layer above that. He's what's known as a radar controller.

[Jonathan Stewart]

So those are the guys that are sitting in a dark room staring at a scope. That's like a video game, but it's like playing 3D chess at 250 miles an hour. And that's why I said we really enjoy it.

[Annie Minoff]

This video game is especially intense at Newark, which is some of the busiest airspace in the world.

[Jonathan Stewart]

The complexity is insane. I've worked in roughly 10 to 12 different facilities in my career. The Newark Area C, or Philly Area C, whatever we're calling it now, is by far the most complex operation I've ever worked. The skill set that makes you a good air traffic controller makes you bad at literally everything else. You know, your personal life, your wives. I think I'm on wife number. I can't remember. Like, it's just. It's not great. But you're very good at your job, so you take pride in that job. So the Newark Area C controllers, our Philly Area C controllers, they all love working traffic like, we push it to the limit every single day.

[Annie Minoff]

But lately, Jonathan says that he and other controllers have been pushed beyond their limits. Throughout the country, air traffic control facilities are understaffed. The FAA has almost 11,000 fully certified controllers, but that's about 3,000 short of its target.

[Jonathan Stewart]

The staffing is relatively, in my opinion, inadequate. And that's based on the numbers that we are told we should have versus the numbers that we do have. And that is no way to place blame on anybody, because that is not, you know, not my forte, so to speak. But it is a challenge when you have to work multiple radar sectors combined. That is going to place limitations on how many aircraft you're going to be able to effectively and safely control.

[Annie Minoff]

Staffing shortages at Newark aren't just a problem for controllers like Jonathan, our colleague Andrew says they're also a problem for travelers.

[Andrew Tangle]

The delays resulting from New York generally, including this particular facility, ripple throughout the country.

[Annie Minoff]

And so, to try to fix the staffing problem, the FAA made a big move last year. It moved oversight of Newark's airspace from Long island, where it had been for years, to Philadelphia.

[Andrew Tangle]

They thought the new location in Philadelphia would be more attractive and lead to more success, lead to more of a pipeline for training. And early on, the FAA had touted some early signs of potential success. They had a healthier pipeline of trainees coming in. They found Philly more attractive. And look, Philadelphia is more affordable than Long Island.

[Annie Minoff]

But this move to Philly also created some unforeseen consequences.

[Andrew Tangle]

When the FAA pulled off this move, they did so with a technological workaround. Essentially, they didn't move a radar system or open up a new radar system. They opened up a satellite radar system that basically was just getting a feed via relay from the previous location on Long Island. And that introduced a lot of technological risks.

[Annie Minoff]

Instead of having its own radar, the new Facility would rely on a link from Long Island. But that link wasn't always reliable. That became frighteningly clear in late April when those Newark controllers lost their radar and radios for about 90 seconds.

[Unnamed Controller]

I just got told that the approach lost all the radars. Three of their four radar screens went black and they have no frequencies.

[Andrew Tangle]

Every controller's nightmare is what happened at Reagan national in January where plane and helicopter collided. That is, these are safety professionals behind the scenes. They do not want that to happen. And their tools are radar and radios. And when those go out, I've heard it compared to driving down the highway blindfolded and your hands tied.

[Unnamed Controller]

And they want you to be advised they may not be able to radar contact you because of the radar issues and they may lose you on for certain times of when you're flying.

[Annie Minoff]

For the controllers involved, the ongoing glitches around Newark Airport have been harrowing.

[Andrew Tangle]

The controllers were very shaken by this event on April 28th and the ones subsequent to it. And they were stressed out and they were worried about something bad happening. And after that event, four of them took stress related trauma leave from their positions. And that added to the disruptions and staffing constraints at an already thinly staffed facility.

[Annie Minoff]

Air traffic controllers can take trauma leave after an incident to look after their mental health. Earlier this month, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said that workers taking trauma leave and had made the staffing situation at Newark worse. He described controllers as having, quote, walked off the job.

[Jonathan Stewart]

Hopefully he misspoke because the controllers did not walk off the job.

[Annie Minoff]

That comment rubbed Jonathan the wrong way.

[Jonathan Stewart]

Walking off the job implies that they, of their own free will left and refused to do their job. There's not a single controller in Newark here at sea, to the best of my knowledge, that does not love their job. All right, we would like to have more resources to effectively do our job. Yes, that is the case. But to say that someone would basically game the system and take trauma leave when they were not traumatized is insulting at best and just quite frankly, misinformed.

[Annie Minoff]

We asked United about CEO Scott Kirby's comment. A United spokesman pointed to Kirby's more recent statements calling for better equipment and working conditions for air traffic controllers.

[Jonathan Stewart]

Nobody walked off the job of their own free will. They had to be taken out of position and relieved of duty because they were not mentally fit to do it anymore at that point because of the trauma that was involved.

[Annie Minoff]

Jonathan was speaking from experience when Andrew interviewed him. Jonathan was also on trauma leave after a scary incident of his own. That's after the break.

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[Annie Minoff]

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[Andrew Tangle]

You yourself are on trauma leave right now, correct?

[Jonathan Stewart]

Yes.

[Andrew Tangle]

Could you walk us through the close call on May 4th that led you to take that leave?

[Jonathan Stewart]

So I had been working for in the operation for roughly 3 hours ish@ the time of the incident. Typically I try not to work myself or anyone else longer than two hours. It has just been my experience that after that two hour mark, your mental acuity begins to diminish a little bit because it's fatigue, you get tired.

[Annie Minoff]

It wasn't just the long hours that were wearing Jonathan down though. Since the technical glitches, he'd been doing a more complicated version of his job. Beyond the usual radar procedure, Jonathan was using pen and paper techniques to track aircraft just in case an outage happened.

[Jonathan Stewart]

Again, in my mind, if we are expected to lose radar, there is an operational advantage or nay, a necessity to use a combination of the two to effectively separate aircraft and to ensure that were you to lose radar and radios again, that you're not going to have a catastrophic event. So all that said to say, yes, you do have a certain way to do it. The way I did it was the way that worked for me that increased my workload, which led to me having a close call. So a nose to nose situation.

[Annie Minoff]

A nose to nose situation, meaning two planes were at risk of a mid air collision. Leading up to this moment, Jonathan had been monitoring two planes departing out of two New Jersey airports. A business jet and another small plane. The two aircraft were taking off around the same time. Jonathan was in charge of making sure that they stayed out of each other's way. But before he knew it, the aircraft were at the same altitude and at risk of colliding.

[Jonathan Stewart]

So they were nose to nose, slightly offset when I saw it. And I expected them to be there just like that because that was the plan. I did not expect them to be at the same altitude. So we're not still not sure there will be an investigation into that. But again, that's not My forte.

[Andrew Tangle]

But you caught the error.

[Jonathan Stewart]

I caught the error and fixed it before it became worse. The issue was it was unexpected. So it caused me a great deal of stress, and then it made me angry because I don't like to be put in a situation where I'm guaranteed to fail. That doesn't make any effing sense. So that was the situation I was in. Due to that, I took myself out of that situation and have taken some time off to try to get my head where it's supposed to be.

[Annie Minoff]

After the incident, Jonathan filed an internal report saying that the situation at the Philadelphia control facility was unsafe. An FAA spokesperson told the Journal that Jonathan's report is under review and that the agency takes safety reports seriously. Jonathan says these kinds of experiences can be traumatic.

[Jonathan Stewart]

You go straight into survival mode to separate those aircraft and make sure they don't hit. And then when that's over, then it really hits you. Then it hits you. I almost, you know, had a really bad error. You know, I could have, you know, done something terrible.

[Andrew Tangle]

Overall, what's been the toll of the fatigue and stress of the job on you, on you personally?

[Jonathan Stewart]

Me personally? It's not good for your health. That lack of sleep coupled with stress is a killer. It's not good for you. And in my situation and other people are out on trauma leave, you do have acute ptsd, and you do have situations where you will have a recurring dream about the incident, and then that will make you uncomfortable enough to where you. You don't want to go back to sleep. So that. That can be a little bit of an issue as well.

[Annie Minoff]

Jonathan says that flying is still statistically the safest way to travel. And he says he's been reassured by recent steps taken by the faa. Last week, the FAA said that it's working to increase staffing levels at Newark. It's also adding temporary backup systems to prevent more outages and eventually new high bandwidth connections between Philadelphia and New York. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also announced plans to upgrade air traffic control infrastructure nationwide. He said the Philadelphia facility overseeing Newark would be a priority in those plans.

[Jonathan Stewart]

They are taking steps in the right direction to fix this. It is a top priority from everybody that I'm aware of to get this situation taken care of, be it the equipment issues as well as the staffing issues. It is being handled at the highest level, and it is the highest priority, as it should be.

[Annie Minoff]

What do you hope that people will take away from this interview and from hearing Jonathan?

[Andrew Tangle]

One thing we wanted to accomplish with the interview is just to humanize one of these air traffic controllers who are right in the middle of this. They are behind the scenes. They are the ones who are under pressure to keep the planes on time and keep everyone safe with the resources that they have or don't have. I hope him coming forward helps personalize the situation and can help people at least see who the humans are behind the scenes. Is there anything you want to add? Anything? I didn't ask about that. I should have asked about that.

[Jonathan Stewart]

You were worried I would ask about. I like to add that I'm tired and I want to go take a nap.

[Annie Minoff]

That's all for today. Thursday, May 15 the Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting from Robert Barba, Alison Seider and Bodhi Atwe. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.