Software update keeps Newark airport radar online but network concerns and flight limits remain

A new software update prevented a third radar outage in the last two weeks at New Jersey's busy Newark airport when a telecommunications line failed again over the weekend, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday.

At a news conference, Duffy also said the recent problems that have led to hundreds of cancellations and delays in Newark could have been avoided had action been taken by President Joe Biden's administration to better equip the air traffic control facility in Philadelphia — particularly after issues with the hardware in October and November that should have set off alarms.

The delays continued at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday evening with average backups of more than 1 1/2 hours. This time it wasn't caused by technical failures, but a shortage of air traffic controllers that has been made worse because several of them went on leave due after the first radar outage under a 45-day trauma leave, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Kristen Alsop.

The FAA had already restricted traffic into Newark after the first incident due to the staffing shortages. Those limits, designed to keep flights safe, combined with an ongoing runway construction project in Newark, has created lingering cancellations and delays. Later this week, the FAA will meet with all the airlines to discuss making those limits last into the summer.

Duffy said the update the Federal Aviation Administration installed Friday night helped ensure the backup system worked on Sunday when there was another problem with the primary line coming into the air traffic control facility in Philadelphia. When a similar issue happened Friday and on April 28, the radar and communications systems went offline briefly, leaving controllers unable to see or talk to the planes.

Even though the radar system stayed online Sunday, controllers were worried because of the two previous outages, so Duffy said they stopped all traffic at Newark airport for about 45 minutes as a precaution.

Duffy said he will request an investigation into last year's move of Newark air traffic controllers from New York to Philadelphia to determine why more wasn't done to ensure there wouldn't be problems. Philadelphia is about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southwest of Newark.

“The Biden-Buttigieg FAA bungled this move without properly hardening the telecom lines feeding the data, which was already well-known to be error-prone,” Duffy said. “Without addressing the underlying infrastructure, they added more risk to the system.”

Duffy also said the FAA should have set up a new radar system for Newark in Philadelphia instead of piping the signal in from New York for controllers.

Duffy and President Donald Trump have said that the problems in Newark are a prime example of why they developed a multibillion-dollar plan to overhaul that nation's air traffic control system, unveiled last week. Duffy blames the Biden administration for failing to do that, but those problems go back decades, even before the first Trump administration.

An adviser to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Duffy should spend more time trying to deal with the nation's problems, and he defended the Biden administration's efforts to bolster air traffic controller hiring and make a down payment on dealing with some of the infrastructure problems.

“Secretary Duffy has a tough job. But he needs to spend more time doing what the American people are paying him to do — fix problems — and less time blaming others," said Chris Meagher.

Duffy laid out an extensive plan to replace the nation's outdated air traffic control system last week, including installing 4,600 new high-speed data connections and replacing 618 radars, but didn't put a price tag on the plan other than to say it will cost billions.

The FAA has installed new fiber optic lines at Newark airport and New York's Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports to replace old copper wires since the first outage, but plans to spend the next two weeks testing those new lines out before switching over to them.

A display shows the status of flights at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J., Monday, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones, missiles and artillery killed at least 24 civilians and injured more than 200 others in Ukraine, officials said Tuesday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought guarantees at a NATO summit of further Western help for his country’s efforts to repel Russia’s invasion.

Russian forces have relentlessly blasted civilian areas of Ukraine throughout the war, which is now in its fourth year. More than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, according to the United Nations. Ukraine has also launched long-range drones against Russia, hitting residential areas.

Zelenskyy was set to meet Tuesday with Western leaders attending a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands. He is keen to lock in additional military support for Ukraine's fight against Russia’s bigger army, as recent direct peace talks have delivered no progress on a possible settlement.

Key U.S. military commitments to Ukraine left over from the Biden administration are expected to run out within months, according to analysts, and there is uncertainty over whether U.S. President Donald Trump is willing to provide more.

A Russian ballistic missile attack on Dnipro hit multiple civilian sites in the central Ukrainian city around midday on Tuesday, killing 15 people and injuring at least 174 others, officials said.

In the nearby town of Samar, an attack killed two people and injured 14, Dnipro’s regional administration head Serhii Lysak wrote on Telegram.

The barrage damaged 19 schools, 10 kindergartens, a vocational school, a music school and a social welfare office, as well as eight medical facilities, according to Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov. One of the blasts blew out the windows of a passenger train carrying around 500 people. Schools are closed for the summer break.

Zelenskyy, in a post on Telegram, said Russia requires foreign components to build its ballistic missiles and urged countries to deny the Kremlin access to them by cracking down on Russian “schemes” to obtain them. “Sanctions against Russia must also be significantly strengthened,” he said.

Russia also shelled residential neighborhoods and critical infrastructure across Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, killing four civilians and wounding at least eleven others, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the regional military administration.

In the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine, a drone attack late Monday killed three civilians, including a 5-year-old boy, and injured six others, local authorities said.

Among the injured were two 17-year-old girls and a 12-year-old boy, according to officials.

Russian air defense forces overnight shot down 20 Ukrainian drones, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday morning. It said 14 were downed over the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, while two had been flying over the Moscow province.

One drone slammed into a tower block on the outskirts of the Russian capital, sparking a fire on its 17th floor, local Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said Tuesday. He said a 34-year-old resident suffered shrapnel wounds to his arm and leg. Two other drones were shot down on the approach to Moscow, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

Air traffic was briefly halted as a precaution at two major Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo, a representative of Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Netherland's Prime Minister Dick Schoof, right, speaks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting at the Catshuis on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

A view of the damaged flat of an apartment building where the Ukrainian drone fell in Krasnogorsk, just outside Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Moscow News Agency via AP)

In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, a Russian soldier prepares Giatsint-B 152 mm field gun to fire towards Ukrainian position on an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)