The Newark Liberty International Airport mess is being exacerbated by air traffic controllers who took “trauma leave” of up to 45 days to cope with the stress of equipment failures, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
At least five air traffic controllers have taken the time off under the Federal Employees Compensation Act, CNN’s aviation correspondent reported.
The law was designed to allow federal employees who suffer a “traumatic injury” on the job to take time off to recover while receiving 100% pay.
“Frequent equipment and telecommunications outages can be stressful for controllers,” the FAA said Monday.
“Some controllers at the Philadelphia TRACON network who work Newark arrivals and departures have taken time off to recover from the stress of multiple recent outages.
“While we cannot quickly replace them due to this highly specialized profession, we continue to train controllers who will eventually be assigned to this busy airspace.”
The temporary loss in personnel has led to flying pain for travelers using Newark airport with an avalanche of delays and cancellations wreaking havoc in recent days at the New Jersey transit hub.
The CEO of United Airlines previously slammed air traffic controllers for “walking off the job” following the outages — saying 20% of the FAA staffers overseeing Newark flights had taken leave du to the equipment failures.
A source told The Post that a fried copper wire was to blame for a 90-second outage in radar and comms last week — which trigger the cascade of delays and cancelations at Newark.
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