The Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Tangel discusses a troubling recent communication loss for air-traffic controllers, and how it has served as a wake-up call. India struck sites in Pakistan, causing global concern. The Washington Post has more. Today the conclave to elect a new pope begins. NPR’s Bill Chappell takes us inside the secretive process. Plus, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration’s ban on transgender people in the military to take effect, Canada’s new prime minister met with Trump, and another update about Real IDs. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Wednesday, May 7th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. The conclave to choose a new pope begins today. And a mostly cordial meeting between Canada's new prime minister and President Trump.
But first, to last week's communications meltdown at Newark Airport that put air traffic controllers completely in the dark and set off a chain reaction that's still resulting in canceled and delayed flights. Yesterday, audio from air traffic control was released, offering us a window into the incident.
No, you do not have a Bravo clearance. We lost our radar and it's not working correctly. Radar service terminates, squawk VFR, green screen approved. If you want a Bravo clearance, you can just call the towers when you get closer. Okay, I'll wait for that frequency from you, okay? Okay, no, just squawk VFR, look up the tower frequencies. We don't have a radar, so I don't know where you are.
We called up Andrew Tangle, who covers aviation safety and regulation for the Wall Street Journal, to tell us what was happening there.
They lost their radios and their radars for about 90 seconds, and they couldn't communicate with pilots. And that was a very scary situation for the controllers. They are managing Busy, complex airspace, and they keep airplanes safely separated. They tell them where to go, where to point the nose, how fast to go, all of that, and keep them out of harm's way.
And they do that with the tools that went dead.
This blackout meant controllers couldn't see where each plane was, and their backup systems didn't work.
There are planes taking off, landing, going hundreds of miles per hour. They're all in sequence. They need to know where not to fly. They need to know not to go in a certain direction to not have a conflict with another aircraft and crash into it.
And when the basic tools that air traffic controllers use don't work, it's very scary for them, but it raises obvious safety issues for the traveling public.
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