The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported a temporary loss of communications at the Denver air traffic control center, lasting approximately two minutes. Despite this outage, controllers were able to maintain contact using an emergency frequency, avoiding any loss of separation between aircraft. This incident follows recent telecom outages at the Newark air traffic control facility, heightening concerns about the reliability of FAA communications systems.
During a US House of Representatives hearing, Franklin McIntosh, the FAA’s deputy head of air traffic control, explained that both the main and backup frequencies at the Denver center failed briefly, prompting controllers to switch to an alternate frequency to communicate with aircraft. The successful implementation of safety protocols during the outage was commended by McIntosh.
Issues such as these are not uncommon within the FAA, often attributed to aging equipment and outdated systems. A recent report by the Government Accountability Office revealed that a significant number of the FAA’s air traffic control information systems are unsustainable due to various issues, prompting calls for urgent modernization efforts within the agency.
The FAA is currently investigating the Denver communications failure and has assured that operations were not impacted, with aircraft safely separated throughout the incident. These incidents underscore the urgent need to address the aging infrastructure of the air traffic control network, with proposals from the US transportation secretary to allocate billions of dollars for modernization efforts over the next few years.
