Cable cut causes hundreds of cancelled flights in Northeast

Airport operations in the Northeast were running once again on Monday night after a construction crew accidentally cut into a fiber line in New Jersey. The cut caused a telecom outage Monday across the area, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a social media post. Lines were repaired later that day. The Federal Aviation Administration paused flights at Newark Liberty International, Teterboro, Philadelphia International, LaGuardia, and John F. Kennedy International airports, he said.

Newark had more cancellations than any other airport in the world on Monday, with 300 cancelled flights, according to FlightAware.com. Philadelphia experienced 230 delays. Duffy said the incident shows the need to modernize aging infrastructure to prevent similar disruptions in the future.

How did the accident happen? A construction crew working on a project between New Brunswick and North Brunswick severed the line around 9:45 a.m. Monday, New Jersey Transit said in a statement to local media. The crew was about 10 feet away from the utility line markings, the transportation provider said. They cut a Verizon fiber cable line running adjacent to a New Jersey Transit rail line, a Verizon spokeswoman said in a statement to WORLD. Verizon then immediately deployed technicians to help with repairs, she said.