FAA grounds planes at major airports for hours

Published September 21, 2026 1:26pm EDT An equipment outage grounded planes at Newark Liberty, JFK, LaGuardia, Teterboro and Philadelphia International airports An equipment outage has grounded planes at some major airports in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania on Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said. "The FAA is pausing flights into Philadelphia International, Teterboro and Newark Liberty International airports due to issues with some frequencies at Philadelphia TRACON," the FAA told Fox News in a statement earlier Monday.Since the statement, John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Westchester County Airport have also faced ground stops due to an equipment outage, according to the FAA website. LAGUARDIA SHUTS DOWN RUNWAY FOR SECOND TIME IN WEEKS AFTER PAVEMENT ISSUE RESURFACES Air traffic control tower at Philadelphia International Airport, the airport 6-year-old Casper left from while heading to Florida. (John Greim/Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)FAA Administrator Brian Bedford said Philly TRACON lost their primary circuit, and when they switched to the backups, they learned the fiber optic cable had a break.Bedford said the TRACON may come back on at 1:30 p.m. ET if the new circuit is installed. The fiber optic cable, however, will take around 13 hours to fix.GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HEREThis is a developing story; check back for updates.