An exclusive video obtained by CBS News shows inside the problem-plagued air traffic control facility that handles flights in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport during the brief outage that occurred on May 9.
The video shows inside area C of the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, with blank screens, and air traffic controllers can be heard talking. The video also shows the system coming back on.
The brief 90-second outage occurred at 3:56 a.m. Eastern Time on May 9, an especially slow time of day when very few flights were in the air. Other areas of air traffic control were still able to monitor any aircraft the Philadelphia facility was handling during the outage.
The Federal Aviation Administration relocated Newark air traffic controllers to the facility in Philadelphia last year due to staffing concerns. Last fall, CBS News New York reported that the relocation caused more than 800 Newark flight delays in the first two weeks of the move.
The FAA said the third outage in less than two weeks happened Sunday morning at Newark Liberty after a backup air traffic control system momentarily failed.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, the FAA and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy have been trying to reassure the public that the Newark airport is safe to fly out of.