<p>Major airports across the Northeast experienced significant disruptions on Monday after construction workers accidentally cut a critical fiber cable.</p>
<p>Flights at major New York and New Jersey airports, as well as those in Philadelphia and Boston, were halted. This incident coincided with the arrival of over 100 global leaders in New York City for the U.N. General Assembly, which is scheduled to take place from Tuesday to Thursday, with attendance from approximately 130 world leaders and senior representatives, including U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and French President Emmanuel Macron.</p>
<p>Thousands of lights nationwide were affected due to the incident, which was caused by a failure in the primary telecom circuit and the accidental cutting of a backup fiber cable. Newark Liberty International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, Teterboro Airport, Philadelphia International Airport, and LaGuardia Airport were among the facilities directly impacted. As of around 3 p.m. Monday, officials reported that flights were resuming at LaGuardia and Philadelphia, while Newark, JFK, and Teterboro remained paused.</p>
<p>Federal Aviation Administration Chief Bryan Bedford stated that the initial outage occurred at Philadelphia’s Terminal Radar Approach Control facility, which manages air traffic for the affected airports. The primary circuit, which was aging, failed on Monday. When officials attempted to switch to a backup fiber-optic cable, it was mistakenly cut by a construction crew in New Jersey.</p>
<p>Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy provided an update on the system failures Monday afternoon, confirming that an Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut into the backup fiber line, leading the FAA to pause flights in the Northeast.</p>
<p>Duffy noted that the incident highlights the need for additional funding to modernize aging infrastructure and prevent similar disruptions in the future.</p>
<p>The fiber cable runs adjacent to an Amtrak rail line, and according to Verizon, Amtrak construction contractors were responsible for cutting into it. Bedford indicated that repairing the fiber cable would take approximately 13 hours, so authorities are working on replacing the circuit instead.</p>