
(Newark, NJ) — An air traffic controller at Newark Airport says he would not fly out of airport right now with all the problems that have plagued Newark over the last few months. Jonathan Stewart tells CBS News that he left his job in the air traffic control tower at Newark after the recent equipment failures. He says the jobs had just become too stressful with the radar outages and the amount of overtime he was forced to work. The Air Force veteran says he does not know if he will ever return to his job.
Newark Airport is still dealing with staffing issues. On Wednesday night, the FAA issued a ground stop due to staffing shortages. It lasted less than an hour. The airport is currently limited to just 28 arrivals and departures per hour due to runway construction and air traffic controller staffing problems. That number is 30-percent less than normal operations. One runway that was shutdown on April 15th is back open for departures and should be certified for arrivals sometime this month.
The FAA says it is taking steps to try to improve all that’s wrong at Newark, and prevent further outages.