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Planes at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport were briefly left flying blind overnight as the airport experienced another radar outagethe second incident in less than two weeks. The most recent radar outage, first reported by ABC News, occurred just before 4 a.m. ET on Friday and lasted for a minute and a half. There was a telecommunications outage that impacted communications and radar display at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, which guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport airspace, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson confirmed in a statement provided to Fast Company. Why New York area planes are getting their orders from Philadelphia A Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, is a facility that oversees arrivals and departures within a given airspace. Those facilities provide a critical link between traffic controllers based in airport towers who coordinate takeoffs and landings and the multistate area control centers that guide planes once they reach cruising altitudes. In the case of Newark Airport, that vital link in the chain of communication is newly operating out of Pennsylvania. The FAA relocated part of Newark Airports air traffic control operations to Philadelphia last year in an effort to add additional controllers and to reduce delays at one of the worlds busiest and most complex airspaces. But the move to Philadelphia appears to have caused more problems than it has solved, with short but potentially catastrophic outages sowing chaos for Newarks air traffic controllers. The most recent radar outage is not an isolated incident Fridays radar and communications outage at Newark Airport is just the latest in a string of recent safety lapses keeping frequent fliers up at night. A Newark air traffic controller told NBC News that radio contact has gone dark at least eight or nine times at the facility in the last few months. On April 28, Philadelphias TRACON Area C lost all contact with planes flying into Newark Airport for at least 30 seconds when communications and radar screens went offline. After the incident, a number of Newark air traffic controllers working that day took mental health leave due to the acute anxiety they experienced, worsening existing staffing shortages and snarling the airport in more than 1,000 cancellations and delays. In January, an American Airlines passenger plane collided midair with a U.S. Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport, killing everyone on board both aircraft. The tragedy prompted an intense public outcry over air travel safety in the U.S., which is plagued by outdated technology and hiring woes. The Department of Transportation has a planbut needs the cash Prior to Fridays outage, the FAA said that it planned immediate steps to improve the situation at Newark, with goals to staff up air traffic control and fast-track technology and logistics updates. Prior to the Trump administration, the Biden administration offered its own incremental updates to U.S. air travel, including millions for smaller airports to modernize their air traffic control towers. On Thursday, the FAA highlighted plans to update infrastructure including radar, software, and telecommunications systems. According to the detailed proposal by the Department of Transportation, legacy radios, some over 30 years old, rely on outdated analog technology, leading to frequent outages, high maintenance costs due to scarce parts, and incompatibility with modern digital standards like VoIP [Voice over Internet Protocol]. The three-year proposal would modernize existing technology, including an updated digital radio system that would make regular communication blackouts a thing of the past. The proposed upgrades would also add six new air traffic control centers. The Trump administration would need Congress to fund such a massive overhaul to Americas air traffic control systems. Trump has enthusiastically steered around Congress on most issues so far, but for a huge infrastructure project, that would not be possible. Concerns over American air travel could be one area of rare bipartisan overlap during Trumps second term. The proposal is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars, though $12.5 billion has already bubbled up in a House appropriations bill. We use radar from the 1970s, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Thursday. This technology is 50 years old that our controllers use to scan the skies and keep airplanes separated from one another.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump on Friday floated cutting tariffs on China from 145% to 80% ahead of a weekend meeting among top U.S. and Chinese trade officials, as he looks to deescalate the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Top U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation in Switzerland in the first major talks between the nations since Trump sparked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports. 80% Tariff on China seems right! Up to Scott B, Trump wrote on his social media account on Friday morning, referring to Scott Bessent, his Treasury chief, who has been a point person on trade. The Republican president also called on China to open its markets to the U.S., writing: WOULD BE SO GOOD FOR THEM!!! CLOSED MARKETS DONT WORK ANYMORE!!! Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Geneva in the most-senior known conversations between the two countries in months, according to announcements this week by the Trump administration and the Chinese commerce ministry. It comes amid growing U.S. market worry over the impact of the tariffs on the prices and supply of consumer goods. No country has been hit harder by Trumps trade war than China, the worlds biggest exporter and second-largest economy. When Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs on April 2, China retaliated with tariffs of its own, a move that Trump viewed as demonstrating a lack of respect. The tariffs on each others goods have been mounting since then, with the U.S. tariffs against China now at 145% and China tariffs on the U.S. at 125%. The U.S. tariff includes a 20% rate tied to Trump’s claim that Beijing has failed to stem the flow of chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, and this portion of the tariff is unlikely to be brought up in this weekend’s talks. While an 80% tariff level on Chinese goods would represent a significant reduction from the current 145%, it would still be an extremely high import duty that could create supply chain problems and push up prices. And even with the reduction, the tariff rate would still be higher than the combined 74% rate on China that Trump announced at his April 2 Liberation Day event. For China, experts say Beijing would insist that any agreement from the U.S. side would be credible and implemented. Trump had previously said that he wouldnt lower the tariffs against China to hold substantive talks. But he showed signs of softening during an Oval Office appearance on Thursday, when he said he could lower the 145% rate charged on Chinese goods if the weekend talks go well. Were going to see, Trump said. Right now, you cant get any higher. Its at 145, so we know its coming down. The president’s team has acknowledged that the 145% tariff was not sustainable, as taxes at that rate were effectively an embargo on any trade between the two countries. But it remains unclear how Trump can reconcile the contradictions in his stated goals. He wants large amounts of tariff revenues to offset his income tax cuts, but he also wants deals to increase market access for U.S. goods that would likely require lower tariffs. His aides have said he wants to isolate China, yet his tariffs on other trade partners make it difficult to create a durable alliance on trade. Trumps social media post was another sign that the president has essentially been publicly negotiating with himself on tariffs. Hes started, paused, tweaked, and then threatened more import taxes, constantly reversing himself while balancing his promises to address inflation with his claims that tariffs can tilt the global economy in Americas favor. Seung Min Kim and Josh Boak, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
San Francisco Bay Area residents woke up to some bad news for their Friday commute. Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, the region’s main commuter rail system, which connects San Francisco’s peninsula with the East and South Bay, systematically shut down due to a “computer networking problem” affecting train control. The agency announced it was closing all 50 stations at 4:24 a.m. on Friday morning, the East Bay Times reported. As of this writing on Friday morning, BART said that train service had resumed, although passengers should expect “major delays.” Technicians are on site trying to get to the bottom of the situation, but right now, that is the information that we have, BART communication officer Cheryl Stalter told KQED shortly after 6 a.m local time. We have a computer networking problem that is systemwide . . . it is affecting all operations, so we cannot put trains into service. Chris Filippi, a spokesman for BART, said in a statement to the New York Times, that the last time this happened, it took several hours to resolve. The incident left tens of thousands of commuters looking for new ways to get to work, with many reportedly clogging the Bay Area’s freeways, while the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni bus and rail services, assisted remaining passengers at some BART stations, per the Times. The San Francisco Bay Ferry also ran larger ferries from the North and East Bay, per the East Bay Times. Some 170,000 area residents use BART on weekdays, with ridership just half of what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the American Public Transportation Association, as reported by the New York Times.
Category:
E-Commerce
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