Airport Chaos

It has been a scary few months for air travel.

Faltering technology in the air traffic control hub that watches over Newark Liberty International Airport has caused the radar system to fail at least twice in recent weeks. Airplanes have bumped wings in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

And a number of commercial flights have aborted landings at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport so far this month. On one occasion, it was because an Army helicopter was flying nearby — just months after a plane and a helicopter collided in the same airspace, killing 67 people.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic employees watch over nearly three million passengers and more than 45,000 flights per day. But the technology they rely on is in some cases wildly outdated. And it’s tough to find people who can operate it.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain how we got here.

Glitchy systems

Air traffic controllers rely on two essential things: radar screens, which provide a visual representation of what’s going on in the air, and radio communications, which allow them to talk with pilots.

In certain cases, copper wiring, first developed in the 19th century, is used to transmit data from one place to another. Some systems still rely on floppy disks and compact discs. Flight records are occasionally printed out on slips of paper rather than relayed electronically.

The result is a hodgepodge network of software, parts and wires. Sometimes it works seamlessly; other times a single clipped wire takes out a controller’s radar entirely, leaving pilots with no means to be seen by the people who are supposed to be keeping them out of harm’s way.