Controllers Experienced Multiple Radar and Communications Failures

Overlapping telecommunications failures at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Dallas Love Field (DAL) left more than 400 flights canceled and thousands more delayed. The outage dominoed throughout the US and Canada, dragging lingering effects of the September 19 event across the weekend.

The chaos started with what the FAA later described as “multiple failures” in the data services supplied by a local telecom provider. It turned out that two severed fiber optic cables took down radar data and phone lines between towers, approach control, and the national system. The FAA admitted redundancy checks failed, compounding the issue and its slow recovery.

With no radar picture and no way to coordinate between facilities, departures across the Metroplex stopped. At DFW, one of the busiest hubs on earth and the home base of American Airlines’ network, lines of aircraft sat idle while controllers told pilots they had “no idea how long” a fix would take. By the evening, flight tracking data logged 430 cancellations and 580 delays at DFW alone, while Love Field added nearly 200 more delays.

“We’ve lost all radar and phone communications,” said Love Field controllers in an ATC archive recording. “I’m not departing anybody until we can get a system set up. We have no coms with approach right now.”

The numbers quickly snowballed, with FAA data showing more than 8,600 delays in Dallas. Ripples spread to airspaces from Los Angeles to New York and north into Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. American Airlines took the hardest hit, canceling over 530 flights on the 19th and another 160 on the 20th, affecting more than 100,000 customers. In a memo, the airline said the FAA’s response was “too little, too late,” and COO David Seymour called out telecom providers for their “lack of urgency.” Love Field-based Southwest Airlines got off easier, canceling just one flight.

The FAA insists operations have returned to normal, though some redundancy systems remain offline. Officials, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, are already using the fiasco as Exhibit A for why US air traffic control needs modernization…and billions in funding to do so.

FMI: www.dfwairport.com