The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is looking into an incident where pilots approaching Denver International Airport briefly lost communication with air traffic controllers on Monday.
According to Fox News, the FAA told Fox Business that a portion of the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) lost communications for about 90 seconds at around 1:50 p.m. local time on Monday due to the failure of both transmitters covering a section of airspace.
Sources informed Denver7 that up to 20 pilots experienced communication issues with air traffic control. However, the FAA stated that controllers switched to an alternate frequency to provide instructions, ensuring aircraft remained safely separated. The agency said operations were not affected.
Fox News further reported that the Denver ARTCC covers approximately 285,000 square miles of airspace over several states including Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.
The air traffic control system has faced significant strain for years due to ongoing staffing shortages, outdated technology, and insufficient investments into critical infrastructure.
Over the past few months, the challenges have become more evident, highlighted by two separate outages at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport.
Air traffic controllers located at the FAA facility in Philadelphia experienced radar and radio communication failures while guiding planes to Newark in April and then in May.
Construction at the Newark Airport is also causing ongoing issues, with only two parallel runways available for use.
The outage at Newark, compelled the FAA to improve operations including technology upgrades and increasing staff. Since then, the airport has scaled back on arrivals and departures to account for staffing shortages and tech issues.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau have announced there will be significant investments made into building a new air traffic control system, which could take three or four years to complete, according to Duffy.
“We’re going to build an all-new, state-of-the-art air traffic control system in 3 to 4 years,” Duffy said in an interview with CNBC. “But we need Congress to deliver the money up front and clear red tape hurdles to permitting.”
